Jammu/Islamabad: An Army officer and a porter were injured Sunday as Pakistan army resorted to heavy mortar shelling and small arms firing on forward posts and villages along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch and Rajouri districts of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.
While the colonel-rank officer was injured in Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch district, the 25-year-old porter suffered splinter injuries when a mortar shell exploded near him in Keri sector of Rajouri district, they said.
Both the injured were evacuated to a hospital and their condition was stated to be “stable”, the officials said.
Earlier, a defence spokesman said Pakistan violated ceasefire by resorting to unprovoked shelling and firing from across the border in the two sectors around 11 a.m., prompting the Indian Army to give a befitting response.
The officials said the shelling was intense in both the sectors, causing panic among the people who were asked to stay indoors to avoid any casualty.
The cross-border firing stopped around 1.15 p.m. in Krishna Ghati sector, only to resume again around 3.25 p.m. till 5.15 p.m., they said.
Army porter Mohammad Mahroof, a resident of Challas village, suffered splinter injuries when a mortar shell exploded near him in Keri sector, the officials said, adding he was given immediate medical aid and was later evacuated to an Army hospital.
Two residential houses were also damaged, while a few cattle also perished in the Pakistani shelling which was still continuing intermittently, the officials said.
They said the casualties suffered by Pakistan in the retaliatory action was not known immediately.
Meanwhile, a young boy and a woman were killed while another woman was wounded in two different areas of Pakistan administered Kashmir on Sunday amid “unprovoked shelling” by Indian troops from across the restive Line of Control (LoC), officials said.
The casualties occurred in Maal Gujran and Sehra villages in Khuiratta and Hajira subdivisions of Kotli and Poonch districts, respectively, where Indian troops resorted to shelling from 10am onwards, officials said.
In Hajira, Indian troops started shelling in Battal sector at about 10:45am “without any provocation, catching the residents off guard”, said Javed Iqbal, a local police official.
“A mortar shell exploded in the courtyard of a house, killing a woman on the spot and critically injuring her daughter in law,” he said, adding that continued shelling has kept people of the area indoors.
Rubia Kanwal, Pooch district disaster management officer (DDMO), identified the deceased as 45-year-old Nasreen Begum, wife of Chaudhry Wazir Hussain, and the injured woman as 24-year-old Sonia Nadeem.
Later in the day, Shariq Talat, DDMO in neighbouring Kotli district, told Dawn that a 12-year-old boy, Mohammad Shahid, son of Mohammad Shabbir, lost his life in Maal Gujran village, two kilometres away from the LoC in Anderla Kotehra sector of Khuiratta subdivision.
“The victim and his grandmother were looking after their goats along a small water body close to their house when shrapnel from a mortar shell that fell nearby pierced his back,” he said, adding the grade-III student died on the way to a health facility.
Goi and Tatta Pani sectors in the same district were also being hit by Indian troops with “heavy weapons”, Talat said, adding: “So far no losses have been reported from the two sectors.” (With Inputs from PTI/Agencies)
