A soldier was killed in indiscriminate firing by Pakistani troops in Krishna Ghati sector in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district on Sunday night. The unprovoked firing appears to have escalated tension along the border ahead of United States President Barack Obama's visit to India. According to official sources, Pakistani troops targeted the Indian posts of Kirpan, Kranti and Kirpan-II from their forward posts of Chuha and Daaku.
The terrorists holed up in the 'natural caves' have resorted to intermittent firing ever since the army operation began on December 31, which has resulted in the death of two army troopers and a special police officer. The army says that it has so far eliminated four terrorists, but their bodies have not been recovered yet.
The operation to track down a group of hiding terrorists, who are responsible for the killing of nine soldiers, in Bhatti Durrian forest in Mendhar along with Surankote forest in Poonch and nearby Thanamandi in Rajouri district entered the 21st day on Sunday, the officials said.
The latest ceasefire violations -- the tenth and eleventh in less than a week -- has come a day after an Army jawan was killed when Pakistani troops opened fire at forward posts along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district.
The condition of the injured is stated to be stable, the officials said.
People in several districts of Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Gujarat spent an anxious night as authorities enforced blackouts amid heightened tension between India and Pakistan.
A defence spokesman in Jammu said miscreants fired three rocket propelled grenade rounds at Nangi Tekri posts in the Krishna Gathi area in the Poonch district on Saturday morning
Five passengers of a mini bus were killed and seven others wounded in a deadly improvised explosive device blast at Marah village in the frontier Poonch district of Jammu region on Tuesday evening.
Villagers living near the International Border and Line of Control in Jammu are on high alert following the recent terror attack in Pahalgam, preparing underground bunkers and accelerating crop harvesting. The incident has heightened security concerns despite a renewed ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan in 2021. Residents are demanding swift action against the perpetrators and their handlers.
In the first ceasefire violation this year, Pakistani troops fired at Indian posts along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district on Wednesday morning.
The last journey of the five jawans martyred in the attack by Pakistan soldiers began in the evening from Poonch town with Army officers laying wreaths on their caskets.
This marked the sixth consecutive night of ceasefire violations by Pakistan along the LoC, amidst heightened tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad following a recent terror attack in Pahalgam on April 22.
Hundreds of residents along the Line of Control (LoC) and the International Border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir were evacuated to safer zones after Pakistani shelling following Indian airstrikes on terror targets in Pakistan. The shelling killed 12 people, including four children and two women, and injured over 50. The evacuations come amid heightened tensions between India and Pakistan following the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam that left 26 civilians dead. The government has provided temporary shelter for those evacuated.
There was a ceasefire violation by Pakistan Army on a forward post in Mankote-Balnoie sector.
Army troops could not open fire on the terrorists due to the presence of Pakistani posts nearby, they said. Drone footage of the area showed a blood trail, indicating that the terrorists had suffered injuries due to the fall.
Indian Army soldiers patrol the Line of Control at Pallanwala in Akhnoor ahead of Independence Day.
On Thursday, April 20, 2023, five soldiers were killed and another was seriously injured after their vehicle caught fire following a terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch.
A fresh exchange of fire took place on Thursday between terrorists and security personnel in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, where four Army personnel were killed and two others were injured in an encounter, officials said.
Less than a week after five soldiers were killed in an ambush at the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmi, Pakistan on Monday violated the bilateral ceasefire in the Poonch sector along the Line of Control, according to a defence spokesperson.
The exchange of fire occurred even though the directors general of military operations of India and Pakistan spoke over the hotline on Tuesday amid rising tensions between the two countries over the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22.
Pakistani troops on Saturday evening violated the ceasefire on the Line of Control at two places in the Mendhar sector of Poonch district of Jammu region.
A Defence spokesman said the ultras opened heavy fire on search parties resulting in critical injuries to the JCO and four other personnel.
With respect and gratitude we honour the memory of soldiers who sacrificed their lives in Operation Sindoor.
As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Sonia Gandhi are on a visit to Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistani troops on Tuesday violated ceasefire for the fourth time this month by opening firing on Indian posts along the Line of Control in the Poonch district.
For the ninth consecutive night, Indian and Pakistani troops engaged in small arms fire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, continuing a pattern of heightened border tensions. The skirmishes, initiated by Pakistani troops in violation of the ceasefire agreement, have led to a tense situation along the LoC and International Border (IB). The incidents come in the wake of the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, which claimed the lives of 26 people, mostly tourists. Civilians residing near the border have begun preparing their bunkers, anticipating potential escalation. Despite a recent hotline conversation between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of India and Pakistan, where India cautioned Pakistan, the ceasefire violations persist.
Six persons were found dead on the spot and five more succumbed to injuries while being evacuated from the scene.
The vehicles came under attack in the Savni area on the Rajouri-Thanamandi-Surankote road around 3.30 pm.
Two terrorists, including a top Lashkar-e-Tayiba (LeT) commander trained in Afghanistan, were killed in a gunfight with security forces on Thursday in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, officials said.
The soldiers' families were inconsolable as they waited for them to come home one last time.
They said a sniper is believed to have targeted the truck from the front before the other terrorists sprayed bullets and lobbed grenades on it.
Indian troops did not retaliate to the 'deliberate provocation' to avoid civilian casualties across the border.
Heavy rains lashed wide parts of Jammu and Kashmir over the past couple of days, triggering landslides at many places and raising the level of water bodies.
A statement from the Army's Northern Command said its personnel have been conducting 'relentless intelligence-based operations to flush out a group of terrorists involved in an ambush on an Army truck in the Tota Gali area of Bhata Dhurian in Jammu region last month'.
The fierce gunfight was going on in the area with the induction of more troops to neutralise two terrorists trapped at the spot, they said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party termed Mufti's temple visit a "political gimmick."
The delayed timing of J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha's admission has more to do with deflecting the thrust of the Opposition attack on the prime minister and Union home minister during the monsoon session of Parliament, points out Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
The intense shelling from across the border also prompted the authorities to suspend class work in nearly half a dozen government-run schools falling within the firing range in Poonch district.
Jammu and Kashmir BJP chief Ravinder Raina, seeking re-election from Nowshera assembly constituency of Rajouri district in Jammu and Kashmir, is facing a major challenge from his former party colleague Surinder Choudhary.
The army early on Thursday foiled an infiltration bid by terrorists on the Line of Control in Poonch district of Jammu region.
