Jammu/Srinagar: An Army soldier was killed and two others were injured when Pakistani troops opened fire and shelled areas along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district, officials said on Sunday.
The soldier is the third Army personnel to die in Pakistani firing and shelling on forward posts and villages in the twin districts of Poonch and Rajouri this month.
“Pakistan Army resorted to unprovoked ceasefire violation on the LoC in Poonch sector on Saturday (night). Own troops responded strongly to the enemy fire and in the incident, Sepoy Lungambui Abonmei was critically injured and later succumbed to his injuries,” a defence spokesman said.
He said Sepoy Abonmei was a brave, highly motivated and a sincere soldier.
“The nation will always remain indebted to him for his supreme sacrifice and devotion to duty,” the spokesman said.
The officials said two more soldiers, Sepoy Lienkhothien Senghon and Sepoy Tangsoik Kwianiungar, were injured in the firing and subsequently airlifted to the army base hospital in Udhampur.
The three soldiers were injured in Pakistani firing and shelling in Shahpur-Kerni sector during the overnight shelling, the officials said
The mortal remains of the deceased soldier were handed over to his unit after postmortem at district hospital Poonch and is being dispatched to his home town in Assam for last rites, they said.
They said the casualties suffered by the Pakistani Army in the retaliatory action were not known immediately.
On June 04, Havaldar P Mathiazhagan fell to the Pakistani firing in Sunderbani sector of Rajouri district, while on June 10, Naik Gurcharan Singh lost his life in a similar incident in Rajouri sector.
Meanwhile, Pakistan on Sunday shelled mortars along the LoC in Rampur sector of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, drawing retaliation from the Indian Army, a defence spokesperson said.
This is the second ceasefire violation by Pakistani troops in Rampur sector and the third in the north Kashmir district in the last three days, he said.
“On 14 Jun 2020, in the morning hours, Pakistan initiated an unprovoked ceasefire violation along the LoC in Rampur by firing mortars and other weapons,” defence spokesperson Col Rajesh Kalia said.
On Saturday, there was ceasefire violation in Kamalkote Sector in Uri area of the district. A 48-year-old woman was killed on Friday in a ceasefire violation along the LoC in Rampur sector of the district.
Akhtar Begum, wife of Zahoor Ahmad Chechi, was killed on the spot when her house at Batgran was hit by a shell. A 23-year-old woman was also injured in the incident.
Four residential houses and a mosque have been damaged in the shelling by Pakistani troops.
Several families have taken refuge either in underground safety bunkers or moved to safer places elsewhere in the Uri tehsil.
