A policeman was also injured in the gunfight that broke out in Bajaad village in the Gandoh area around 9:50 am.
'There are communal overtones in the chargesheet.' 'Hindus and Muslims live peacefully in Jammu and by highlighting such facts in the chargesheet they are committing a conspiracy against Jammu.' The reason: A Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the Kathua rape-cum-murder case (see box below) and the deportation of Rohingya immigrants. Speaking to Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf, B S Salathia, Jammu Bar Association explains their call for a bandh and the communal divide it has brought about in Jammu.
Seven terrorists have been holed up since Tuesday afternoon.
The home minister also reviewed the preparations for the annual Amarnath pilgrimage scheduled to begin on June 29.
The matter was deliberately hyped, Gupta added. The case is in court, which will decide on it, he said.
The recent terror acts are a sign of our enemy's desperation, he said, in an apparent reference to Pakistan.
There has been a spurt in Pakistani shelling along the border in Jammu and Kashmir this year with over 2,027 cases of violation of a ceasefire agreement being reported till June 10.
A massive manhunt is underway for three foreign terrorists, possibly of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, responsible for the deadly attack on pilgrims in Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi that resulted in the loss of nine lives, including a two-year-old, officials involved in the investigation said on Monday.
He visited areas falling under the operational command of the Rising Star Corps, including Kathua, Samba, Jammu and Pathankot, to review the security situation.
As part of the heightened security arrangements in view of Modi's visit, the officials said, the BSF and the police conducted a joint two-hour-long anti-tunnelling operation in the Ramgarh sector of Samba district.
Indian troops retaliated befittingly to silence the Pakistani guns along the LoC in Mankote, Mendhar and Khari Karmara sectors in Poonch district and along the IB in Hiranagar sector of Kathua district, they said, adding there was no immediate report of any casualty.
Earlier in the day protesters defied curfew in Udhampur in Jammu region, hit by violence over the Amarnath land row, even as life in Kashmir valley remained paralysed for third consecutive day following a strike call given by a separatist group.
BSF troops guarding over 180 km of IB with Pakistan have strengthened their observation posts and 'listening posts' to keep a close watch against any intrusion by drones.
In the past, 'shallow infiltration' has been carried out by terror groups, in which either some army men were killed or damage was caused to an army installation, the officials said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday told Russian President Vladimir Putin that a solution to the Ukraine conflict is not possible on the battlefield and peace efforts do not succeed in the midst of bombs and bullets even as he flagged concerns over a missile strike on a children's hospital in Kyiv.
The home minister said people must have faith in security forces who are foiling the evil designs of enemies.
The army on Sunday ordered a Court of Inquiry into the terrorist attack on 16 Cavalry camp in Samba on September 26 in which its four personnel, including a Lt Col, were killed and two others, one of them a Colonel, injured.
Two army jawans and a woman were killed while 11 people were injured as Pakistani troops targetted villages and security posts at various places in Jammu and Kashmir since Friday night which triggered migration of hundreds of people from some border areas.
Captain Kapil Kundu from Ransika village of Gurugram district was killed when the Pakistani forces opened unprovoked firing.
The body of a junior commissioned officer was retrieved from a stream in the Poshana area of Surankote late Saturday evening, while the body of a second soldier was found this morning as the water level started receding in the district.
The security establishment in Jammu and Kashmir was pulled up by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday for the "lapses" in containing the terror attack near Jammu after three terrorists had a free run for nearly an hour between the two strikes.
In a twin terror attack, three heavily-armed militants dressed in army fatigues on Thursday stormed a police station and an army camp in Jammu region killing nine people including a Lieutenent Colonel, casting a shadow on the upcoming meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif.
The terrorists opened fired and lobbed grenades at the Army camp in Meshwara area of Samba around 5:50 am, security officials said.
An Indian Army jawan was killed and two others were injured when a group of militants opened fire along the Line of Control in the Pallanwala sector of Jammu.
A fidayeen squad of terrorists in army fatigues stormed a police station in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district, killing three security personnel and leaving 11 others, including a deputy superintendent of police injured, in the wee hours on Friday.
The Jammu and Kashmir police on Thursday booked Varinder Singh, suspected to be the bodyguard of the fugitive radical preacher Amritpal Singh, under the Arms Act in connection with a gun licence issued to him in Kishtwar district, officials said.
Seventy army installations, including camps, bunkers and posts, have been hit by the devastating floods in the Kashmir Valley but security forces have swiftly relocated the damaged and washed out posts to plug the gaps in the sensitive border areas.
The official said the firing and mortar shelling from the Pakistani side started around 1 am and continued for over four-and-a-half hours.
Nine persons have been killed so far in ceasefire violations over three days, police officials said.
A curfew was on Sunday clamped in three more districts of Udhampur, Samba and Kathua in Jammu region and army staged flag marches as tension prevailed following outbreak of communal violence in Kishtwar on Friday that left two persons dead and scores of others injured.
The Army on Thursday evening staged a flag march in the Satwari area of Jammu city after a Sikh youth was killed in police firing, while two others were wounded in daylong clashes between protestors and security forces.
While Pakistan enjoys rough parity with India in legacy weapon systems, it is beginning to enjoy superiority in drone warfare, thanks to the RPVs supplied by China, explains Ajai Shukla.
The army was on Saturday deployed in various parts of the tense Jammu as the sikh youth killed in clashes with police was cremated after the state government accepted most of the demands of the agitating community.
The cross-country foot march stayed in the news almost right through, mostly for the barbs between the BJP and the Congress and occasionally for other reasons, including infighting in the opposition party.
The BSF troops were carrying out border domination along the IB, when snipers of Pakistan Rangers opened fire on them around 1050 hours in Hiranagar-Samba sector of Kathua district, said a senior BSF officer.
In an escalation of cross-border military confrontation, 8 civilians were on Tuesday killed and 22 injured in Jammu region due to Pakistani shelling, prompting a strong retaliation by the Indian army in which two Pakistani soldiers were killed and 14 posts were destroyed.
There was no report of any casualty in the latest ceasefire violation which came a day after a personnel of the Indian Army was killed and three others including two women were injured in separate ceasefire violations by Pakistan in Rajouri and Poonch districts.
Singh paid tributes to soldiers killed in the Kargil War at a memorial in Dras sector.
The mortar shelling and small arms firing from across the border was intense in Shahpur, Kirni and Qasba sectors along the LoC in Poonch district.
Singh, 26, who was undergoing treatment at the Government Medical College and Hospital in Jammu, died around 11.45 pm, police said.
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