Indian Army had used artillery guns to destroy four Pakistani posts in a massive assault across the Line of Control in Keran sector of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district last month, government sources said on Friday.
This is the first time the government sources have confirmed that artillery fire was indeed used by the Army to launch a massive assault against Pakistan, something which was always suspected.
It is the first case of artillery fire at the Line of Control since the 2003 ceasefire agreement was signed between the two countries.
They said artillery guns were stealthy moved up and used in straight fire position to raze four positions of Pakistan army to avenge the mutilation of an Indian Army jawan’s body by some suspected militants few days ago.
Violating ceasefire, Pakistan had been firing 120-mm heavy mortars to target Indian civilian areas, to which India had responded strongly.
Defence sources said while ceasefire violations by Pakistan were a regular feature ‘the intensity had never been so hard in the recent past’.
Meanwhile, the LoC remained calm for the second day on Friday, with no firing or shelling taking place from across.
“There has been no firing or shelling by Pakistan along LoC and IB (International Border) today (on Friday),” a senior officer said.
While there has been no shelling or firing along International Border since November one, there has been no shelling since Thursday along the LoC.
On November 2, two people were injured when Pakistani troops resorted to shelling and firing along the LoC in Rajouri and Poonch districts.
The preceding day saw the worst-ever Pakistani shelling along the IB and Loc targeting civil population, killing 8 people, including 2 children and 4 women, and injuring 22 others.
However, even as there was no firing or shelling along the frontier, the border dwellers refuse to return to their homes because of the looming fears.
Officials said most of the border people are staying in camps and they do not want to return to their border homes in view of threat to their lives from Pakistani firing and shelling.
They fear that this is just a lull before another round of hostilities, the officials said.
Jammu & Kashmir government has closed over 400 schools along the IB and LoC in Jammu region in wake of heavy cross border firing from Pakistan.
So far, a total of 18 people including 12 civilians have been killed and more than 83 injured in Pakistan shelling and firing along IB and LoC in Jammu.
Representative image.
