Jammu: Violating the ceasefire, Pakistani army on Monday night attacked an Indian post along the Line of Control in the Poonch sector in Jammu and Kashmir, killing five Indian soldiers. Defence sources said on Tuesday the Pakistani soldiers intruded into the Indian territory past midnight and ambushed the Sarla post on the Indian side of the LoC. Five Indian soldiers were killed, the sources said.
Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh is taking stock of the situation, Army sources said in Delhi. The issue rocked Parliament on Tuesday with members in both Houses demanding a strong response from the Government. Both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha were adjourned till noon.
"From China's intrusions to Pakistan's ambushes - UPA government has been absolutely lax in securing Indian borders. When will the Centre wake up?" tweeted Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s frontman for next year's election. This is unacceptable", tweeted Modi, as his party targeted the government in Parliament, demanding answers from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Defence Minister AK Antony.
"There are serious foreign policy issues so whoever gives the answers will be required to answer," said BJP's Arun Jaitley, the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha. BJP MPs Sushma Swaraj, Murli Manohar Joshi, Shahnawaz Husain and Yashwant Sinha met the Lok Sabha Speaker seeking a discussion on the killings and a statement from the government. Shahnawaz Husain said after meeting the Speaker: "The government should have a policy that if even a single bullet is fired, there should be no talks."
Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tweeted, “(I) was briefed early this morning about the news that five of our soldiers had been killed on the LoC. My heartfelt condolences to their next of kin. These incidents don’t help efforts to normalise or even improve relations with Pak and call in to question the Pak Govt’s recent overtures,” he said.
The incident could cast a shadow on the resumption of the Indo-Pak dialogue process expected later this month. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif are slated to meet in New York next month on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session.
The incident comes hours after a BSF jawan was injured in firing from across Indo-Pak border in Samba district of Jammu and Kashmir. "There was sniper firing from some persons at around 15:55 hours from Pakistan side along the international border (IB) at Narainpur border out post (BOP) area in Ramgarh sector," a senior BSF officer said.
Two rounds were fired from Pakistan side and the bullets hit head constable Ram Niwas Meena of 200 Battalion, he said. On July 27, another BSF jawan was injured when Pakistani troops violated ceasefire twice in the space of 10 hours by targeting Indian posts along the Indo-Pak border in Poonch and Kathua districts. The Pakistani troops had used mortars, RPGs and heavy machine guns leading to heavy firing exchanges.
On July 3, Pakistan violated ceasefire when it fired on cops, who had gone to LoC in Sabzian, Poonch to collect the body of a Pakistani intruder killed in an IED blast on July 1. Pakistani troops fired on troops trying to evacuate injured porters after two were killed in IED attack by Pakistani militants along LoC in Poonch on July 8. On July 12, Pakistani Rangers fired on Indian forward posts in Pindi belt along international border (IB) in Jammu district. Pakistani troops opened small arms firing on Indian posts in forward area along LoC in Poonch district on the night of July 22.
