Cross-border trade and bus service between India and Pakistan will resume at Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch sector on Monday, after more than a fortnight-long suspension, following escalation in tension at the Line of Control over the brutal killing of two Indian soldiers by Pakistani troops.
Under attack from opposition parties over his response on the killing of Indian soldiers, Defence Minister A K Antony on Monday said the armed forces have the freedom to respond appropriately to a developing situation along the Line of Control with Pakistan.
Army troops on Friday foiled an infiltration bid on the Line of Control, killing four infiltrating terrorists in north Kashmir.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, who had earlier accused India of engaging in war-mongering, has offered to hold "discussion and dialogue" with her Indian counterpart Salman Khurshid to resolve the crisis at the Line of Control.
Army troops have scuttled an infiltration bid from across the border and shot dead a Pakistani intruder in Rajouri district along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service was cancelled on Monday following the recovery of 114 kg narcotics from a truck, which crossed over from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, triggering a standoff between the two sides.
Two terrorists were killed in an encounter as security forces foiled an infiltration bid in Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara district on Wednesday, officials said.
An army jawan was killed and another injured in an exchange of fire between security forces and infiltrating militants near the Line of Control in Poonch district, defence sources said on Monday. A group of militants, who had sneaked into Indian territory from across the LoC, were challenged by army troops at the forward post in Khari on Sunday night. The militants resorted to firing, which was retaliated by the troops, sources said.
A junior commissioned officer of the army was killed and two troopers were wounded in a fierce gunfight with a group of infiltrating militants in Shamsnag area on the Line of Control in north Kashmir's Kupwara district on Wednesday.
'It is their business to protest. It is our business to do our work,' he said.
The second point on the LoC was opened on Wednesday.
Lt General Ranbir Singh described the situation in Kashmir as stable but fragile.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chaired a high-level meeting with military and civilian officials to review tensions with India after the killing of five Indian soldiers along the LoC.
Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra was Wednesday briefed about Tuesday's shooting incident by Pakistani troops along the Line of Control in Mendhar in Poonch district.
The Pakistani army has denied reports that two Indian soldiers were killed in a border clash between the two armies in the Mendhar sector at the Line of Control in Poonch district of Jammu region on Tuesday.
Khalistani separatist Lakhbir Singh alias 'Rode', a designated terrorist under the Indian law, has died recently in Pakistan, where he had taken refuge after his uncle Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was killed in 1984 during an army action, officials said on Tuesday.
Army on Sunday foiled an infiltration bid along the Line of Control in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, killing a militant and injuring another, a day after 12 intruders were gunned down in Gurez sector.
Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde arrived in Srinagar on Friday evening after visiting the international border in Jammu. Shinde had arrived in Jammu on Friday morning on a three-day visit to the state.
"In an encounter close to the Line of Control this evening, one solider was martyred and one terrorist was killed. The terrorists mutilated the body of the jawan before fleeing back into Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir under the cover of firing by Pakistan Army," an army spokesman said.
Pakistani troops fired mortar shells and rocket projectile grenades and opened small arms firing on Indian posts along LoC in Sabzian area of Poonch district at around 11.45 pm on Monday night, a senior army official told PTI.
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Accusing Defence Minister A K Antony of making a "false" statement on Poonch killings, Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Wednesday said he should apologise as his remarks are intended to "exonerate" Pakistan as government wants to continue talks.
Describing the peace process as ''fairly irreversible'', the Pakistan president said India's wish to see the LoC converted into a permanent border was not acceptable.
Since January, at least 190 cases of ceasefire violations by the Pakistan Army have been reported from the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.
An Indian military post was targeted from across the Line of Control yet again despite New Delhi asking Islamabad not to vitiate the atmosphere between the two countries by repeatedly violating the ceasefire.
Increase in number of ceasefire violations across the Line of Control is a matter of concern and is constantly being reviewed by the government, Defence Minister A K Antony said.
Army troops guarding the border noticed a group of heavenly-armed terrorists trying to infiltrate into this side of the LoC in Machhil sector, 140 km from Srinagar. The gunfight broke out after the troopers challenged the infiltrators, the spokesman said.
In the retaliatory fire by the army, two of the militants were killed and the troops noticed the ultras dragging the two bodies back into the Pakistani side of the LoC, he added.
General Qamar Javed Bajwa, an expert in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir affairs, on Tuesday took over as Pakistan's new army chief succeeding General Raheel Sharif and promised to improve the tense situation at the Line of Control soon.
Senior army officers of India and Pakistan will meet in the Poonch sector of the Line of Control in the Jammu region on Friday.
The body of Tabarak Hussain (32) was handed over two days after he died of cardiac arrest at a military hospital in Rajouri district, officials said.
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Pakistani troops fired 15 under-barrel grenade launcher rockets on five Indian forward defence locations from its eight border posts along the LoC in Krishna Gati sub-sector of Poonch district at around 1815 hours on Saturday night, Brigadier General Staff, 16 Corps, Brig Gurdeep Singh told PTI on Sunday.
This is the ninth consecutive day that Pakistan violated the ceasefire. There have been 41 violations of the ceasefire accord this year so far. There has been over 230 ceasefire violations along the Indo-Pakistan border this year.
The Pakistani president claimed 'there is no proof' of terrorist activity.
Army troops have foiled an infiltration bid by a group of militants along the Line of Control in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir.
Troops will have to be alert over the next two months as snow melts
2017 has also seen a sharp increase in ceasefire violations at the LoC by Pakistan.
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