ISLAMABAD: Five Indian soldiers were killed during a cross-border exchange of fire as Pakistani troops responded to an ‘unprovoked’ ceasefire violation in the Tatta Pani sector along the Line of Control (LoC) on Saturday, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a press release.
Indian bunkers were also destroyed in the firing, the ISPR said, adding that Pakistani troops ‘violently responded’. Saturday’s episode is not the only incident of cross-border firing this week.
On Friday, Pakistan accused Indian troops of shooting without provocation in Nezapir sector, wounding two civilians. On Thursday, two people were killed and six others injured when Indian troops resorted to unprovoked firing along the LoC. India, however, denied that any of its soldiers had been killed or wounded in any cross-border attack. “A woman was injured as Pakistani troops violated ceasefire twice in two sectors of Poonch district by firing mortar shells on forward posts and civilian areas along the Line of Control, army to retaliate.” an Indian defense spokesman said.
Pakistani troops fired indiscriminately with small arms and mortars along the Line of Control in Krishana Ghati sector, the spokesman added. Incidents of cross-border firing have become a norm since the last months of 2016 as tensions simmer between Pakistan and India over the Kashmir issue.
Pakistan maintains that India has been attempting to divert the world’s attention away from atrocities committed by government forces in India-held Kashmir.
In Srinagar, India’s anti-terrorism agency on Saturday searched the homes of Kashmiri leaders as part of an investigation of their finances and alleged anti-government activities. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) agency is probing if the Kashmiri leaders received funds illegally from ‘Pakistan-based extremists’ to carry out ‘subversive activities’ including stone-pelting and arson.
In an early morning crackdown in the main city of Srinagar, NIA sleuths targeted several leaders and businessmen, as well as the son-in-law of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, police sources confirmed to AFP.
Eight locations in the capital Delhi were also raided. The NIA last month launched a preliminary inquiry into the sources of funding of Kashmiri leaders including Geelani, Naeem Khan and Farooq Ahmed Dar. The agency is investigating if the leaders received funds from Hafiz Saeed, a firebrand cleric who heads the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) group.
The US and India consider JuD, listed as a terror outfit by the United Nations, to be a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group blamed for the 2008 attack on India’s financial capital which killed more than 160 people. Indian-occupied Kashmir has been tense since April 9, when eight people were killed by police and paramilitary forces during election day violence.
Separately on Saturday, two soldiers were killed after fighters attack an army convoy near Lower Munda on the Srinagar-Jammu highway.
“Six soldiers were injured and two of them died later,” an army officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.
