Soldier injured in cross-LoC firing

Former Union minister, Farooq Abdullah asked India and Pakistan to take “effective and urgent” steps towards restoring peace along their borders, saying it were the people of Jammu and Kashmir, particularly those living in the border areas, who take the brunt of active hostilities between the two countries.

He said on Saturday that the tensions along the LoC and the International Border (IB) have already forced relocation of people from the forward areas which is causing enormous problems to them. He expressed anguish over the damages caused to property and injuries to several persons in the border areas of Poonch district and sought immediate rehabilitation of the sufferers. He also asked for providing adequate compensation to the farmers whose standing crops have been damaged in the shelling.

Meanwhile, the guns continued to roar after brief pause along the LoC with the facing armies pounding each others’ positions with small arms and mortars. In one such violation of the ceasefire agreement, an Army jawan was injured in Poonch’s Krishnagati-Mendhar on Saturday, a report quoting IGP (Rajouri-Poonch range) Johny Williams said. However, the Army has not yet confirmed it.

A report from across the de facto border said that border dwellers in PoK have expressed concern that the earthquake resistant reconstructions they live in have made them more prone to cross-border firing and shelling. The mud houses were replaced by ‘smart houses’ with concrete walls and tin roofs, financed by foreign aid after the earthquake on October 8, 2005. Residents now say they found previous dwellings more secure during the armies’ face-offs.