'They asked me if I was a devout Muslim and if I could recite the Kalma.' Flying Officer Jawahar Lal Bhargava knew his game was up. 'They threatened me with dire consequences if I didn't tell the truth.'
Pakistani troops continued breaching the ceasefire along the LoC for the fourth successive day on Saturday by resorting to unprovoked firing and shelling, while two persons have been injured and several houses damaged in Jammu region overnight due to the violation.
"Assistant Sub Inspector of BSF A K Upadhayay was injured when a shell exploded near him in RS Pura sector. He received splinter injures in his hand", a BSF spokesman said.
The Indian government has sent Union ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri to represent India at the event.
Elated over Geeta's return from Pakistan after a gap of 15 years, the Mahatos from Bihar on Monday turned up at the Indira Gandhi International Airport to accord a warm welcome to their "family member", only to be left dejected hours later as she refused to recognise them.
5 AK 47 rifles, two UBGLs, large quantity of explosives, combat dresses, incendiary material, eatables with Pakistani markings and uniquely body-fitted IEDs with timer mechanisms have been recovered.
Several households along the IB sustained damages in the overnight mortar-shelling from across the border, local residents said.
The sources said the Pakistani side, which spoke to the Border Security Force officials in the noon over phone, 'denied any hand' in the killing of Head Constable Narender Singh on September 18.
India on Tuesday protested to Pakistan over the unprovoked firing from across the border to give cover to infiltrators when its Deputy High Commissioner was summoned for the fourth time in just over a week over alleged "unprovoked ceasefire violations".
After a brief lull of three days, Pakistan on Wednesday again resorted to firing from across the International Border in Samba district of Jammu and Kashmir in yet another act of ceasefire violation.
A division bench comprising Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz heard the Al Qadir trust corruption case, a day after the Supreme Court termed Khan's arrest from the IHC premises on Tuesday as 'invalid and unlawful'.
India today lodged a protest with Pakistan after three rockets were fired into its territory in Punjab from across the border.
Tension along the Indo-Pakistan border may cast its shadow on the bilateral talks between the border guarding forces of the two countries scheduled to be held later this month in Lahore.
He said India has been maintaining that terror and talks cannot go together, but talks on terror can definitely go ahead.
In yet another ceasefire violation, Pakistan on Thursday again resorted to firing on Border Out Posts along the International Border in the Samba and Jammu districts of Jammu and Kashmir.
Colourful lights illuminated buildings and earthen lamps dotted houses as people across the country celebrated Diwali with pomp on Monday after two years of muted festivities due to the pandemic.
Pakistan's charity foundation Edhi on Tuesday turned down Rs one crore donation announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking care of deaf and mute Indian girl Geeta during her over a decade-long stay in the country.
General Bajwa gets inputs from his senior officers, but he has the final word, notes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
The Border Security Force on Wednesday said Pakistan's border guarding force was deliberately targeting civilian areas and its Army directly supporting the troops in the shelling on these areas and Indian posts along the International Border.
The Pakistan interior ministry said the enemy on one hand, talks of friendship but also shells the civilians along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary.
In the continued escalation at the international border, Pakistan yet again violated the ceasefire targeting as many as 35 Border Security Force posts in Jammu.
At least 11 people, including a judge, were killed and 25 others injured on Monday when suicide attackers lobbed grenades and opened indiscriminate fire in the premises of a local court in Pakistan's federal capital.
In yet another ceasefire violation, Pakistan troops opened unprovoked firing on Indian posts along the international border in Jammu district on Friday morning.
A Pakistani judge on Saturday cancelled former premier Imran Khan's arrest warrants in the Toshakhana corruption case and allowed him to go home without indicting him, amidst clashes between his supporters and police outside the court complex in Islamabad.
'The incidents have remained confined to the paramilitary forces on both sides with both the armies scrupulously avoiding getting involved. While this incident has been going on, the LOC has been reasonably quiet. Cross border firing achieves no tactical or strategic aims and is more a symptom of hostility. Unfortunately, India has to learn to live with this. Like Israel, we must construct shelters for the border populations and be ready to retaliate in kind,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Pakistani troops violated the bilateral ceasefire at the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district on Thursday night.
A villager was injured as Pakistani Army violated the ceasefire four times overnight by pounding civilian hamlets and posts with 120 mm and 82 mm mortar bombs along the International Border and the Line of Control and LoC in Jammu and Poonch districts, drawing retaliation from the Army and BSF.
Twin grenade attacks in Pakistan's biggest city on the eve of the country's independence day left at least three persons dead and over 40 injured.
Firing mortar shells and using automatic weapons, Pakistani troops targeted civilian areas and forward security posts along the International Border and Line of Control in Jammu, Kathua, Poonch and Rajouri districts of Jammu and Kashmir.
Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar, considered a close confidante of army chief Gen Raheel Sharif, was appointed on Monday as the new head of Pakistan's powerful spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence.
A senior Border Security Force official said that Pakistan Rangers had resorted to heavy firing using small arms and few mortar shells in the in the Kanachak and Pargwal sectors.
Pakistani troops violated ceasefire by resorting to brief firing on border outposts along the International Border.
"Pakistani Rangers fired few bullets warning troops working ahead of the fence in Arnia area in Jammu. Our troops retaliated with few rounds of fire this morning", a senior BSF officer said. "They also fired mortar shells. Some exchange of mortar shells also took place", he said.
'India's policy makers need to pull their heads out of the sand and recognize the reality that Pakistan has supported and sponsored terrorism on Indian soil for more than three decades; a national counter-terrorism strategy must be evolved in the fullest consciousness of this fact, and of the continued hostility of the Pakistani nation-State to the very idea of India.'
Ramzan is currently staying at a shelter home 'Umeed' run by non-governmental organisation 'Aarambh' in Bhopal.
At least nine people, including six Afghan security officials, were killed and 19 others injured on Friday when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a check post on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in the troubled Balochistan province.
In the wake of escalation in ceasefire violations along the Indo-Pak frontier in Jammu and Kashmir, Border Security Forces on Sunday said it has spotted armed terrorists "very close" to the international border on at least "three occasions" in the last few days and suspect the firings are an attempt to help them infiltrate into India.
Geo News channel quoted intelligence sources as saying that at least four terrorists, wearing suicide vests and carrying automatic weapons, were involved in the attack.
Pakistani troops have been firing at Indian posts in the Arnia and RS Pura sectors along the International Border in Jammu and Kashmir in what is the third ceasefire violation in the last 24 hours.
But COVID struck and then his health deteriorated as he underwent a heart surgery which was followed by a brain surgery last year.
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