Border firing in Jammu leaves 9 dead

Srinagar: Nine people, including three children and a Border Security Force jawan, were killed on Friday as Indian and Pakistani border guards traded mortar and small and medium arms fire on the Jammu-Sialkot border.

The police and BSF officials in Jammu said that a BSF jawan and four civilians, including a couple, were killed in what they said was unprovoked firing by the Pakistan Rangers in R.S. Pura, Bishnah and Arnia sectors of Jammu district along the international border. One BSF trooper and 12 civilians were hurt in the attacks, they said.

The slain civilians have been identified as Tarsem Lal and his wife Manjeet, Sat Pal and Jagmohan. While the couple was killed in Chandu Chak village of R.S. Pura, the two other victims were residents of Treva village of Arnia sector, officials said.

They also said the BSF retaliated over the Pakistani mortar shelling and small and automatic arms fire by using the same calibre weaponry. The police said this was the third day of shelling and firing along the IB in Jammu district and comes ahead of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s two-day visit to the state starting on Saturday.

J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti condemned the Pakistani firing and said that Islamabad was showing “no respect” for the holy month of Ramzan. “Continued firing on the border in Jammu is cause of pain & worry. Sad that while our country took the lead in starting peace initiatives with cessation of operations during Ramzan, Pakistan has shown no respect whatsoever for this holy month”, she wrote on Twitter.

In another tweet, she said: “Pakistan will have to reciprocate & contribute to efforts for lasting peace. Everyone must realise that violence is a zero sum game. My deepest condolences to families of victims”.

The BSF said that the Punjab Rangers of Pakistan Rangers resorted to heavy mortar shelling at its forward posts and civilian areas in R.S. Pura, Bishnah and Arnia sectors at 1 am on Friday. “They also used small, medium and automatic weapons to target our posts and civilians areas in R.S. Pura and Bishnah sectors. Soon the firing started also in Arnia sector,” the BSF said.

The BSF jawan who was killed in the Pakistani firing has been identified as Sitaram Upadhyaya. The 28-year-old jawan belonging to the BSF’s 192 Battalion was a resident of Giridih in Jharkhand, who joined the force in 2011, officials said, adding that he is survived by his spouse and two children — a three-year-old son and one-year-old daughter. The BSF said that Udadhyaya was critically injured in the Pakistani firing at the Jabowal border outpost at around 1.30 am. He was rushed to Jammu’s Government Medical College Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries soon thereafter, the officials said. The BSF said an assistant sub-inspector of the force was injured when hit by splinters in mortar shelling from across the border at Pittal BoP.

Jammu’s additional DC Arun Manhas said that four civilians, including a couple, were killed and 12 others injured in R.S. Pura and Bishan sectors. R.S. Pura’s sub-district police officer Sahil Prashur said the police was using bulletproof vehicles to evacuate the injured to the hospital and was reaching out to the people in the areas affected by the firing and shelling.

Earlier on Thursday, a BSF jawan and a civilian were injured in Pakistani mortar shelling at over 15 BOPs of the BSF and civilian areas in Samba and Kathua sectors of the IB. On May 15, a 28-year-old BSF jawan was killed in Pakistani firing in the Samba sector. However, no fresh firing was reported from these sectors since Thursday afternoon, officials said.

In Islamabad, Pakistani officials said that four people, including three children and a woman, were killed and 10 others injured in the Indian firing along the border in the Sialkot sector. The 198-km international border stretch between India and Pakistan in the Jammu area is called “working boundary” by Islamabad.

As the intermittent firing between the facing troops was under way, Pakistan’s acting foreign secretary summoned the Indian high commissioner to the foreign office in Islamabad to lodge protests against the alleged ceasefire violations by the BSF. The skirmishes have taken place a day before PM Narendra Modi is to begin his two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir to inaugurate a 330-MW hydroelectric power project on river Kishan Ganga near the Line of Control in Bandipore district, lay the foundation stone of the Rs 939.41-crore semi-ring road project in Srinagar, participate in the 100th birthday celebrations of Ladakh’s Buddhist spiritual leader Kushak Bakula in Leh and address the sixth convocation of the Sher-i-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology in Jammu.

Elaborate security arrangement are being made for the Prime Minister’s visit, with additional police and paramilitary forces being deployed across the Valley, particularly in Srinagar, official sources said.