After a lull of about five days, situation has again become tense at the Indo-Pak international border (IB) on the day of Diwali. Pakistan Rangers resorted to fresh ceasefire violations and resuming shelling on Wednesday and early morning on Thursday.
Incidentally, the firing coincided with prime minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the state on the day of Diwali. Modi visited soldiers at Siachen to give Diwali greetings and was later in Srinagar to meet and share the grief of flood affected people and review rehabilitation. He was greeted by a general strike called by the separatists.
The fresh ceasefire violations by Pakistan has raised apprehensions of not only recommencement of firing and shelling from both sides but also the situation snowballing into much worse, even skirmish between troops, sources said.
Pakistan resorted to small firing at few border outposts (BOPs) in the Ramgarh and Arnia region in Jammu sector between 1 and 4 am on Thursday morning, thereby dousing hopes of thousands of people to return back to their homes close to the international border to celebrate Diwali.
At least 30,000 to 40,000 people living in towns and villages close to the border had shifted temporarily to safer areas along with their live stock. Some have shifted 40 kilometres away to avoid getting killed or injured after Pakistan broke ceasefire violation in the end of September and spread it across the entire international border along the Jammu sector.
A senior Border Security Force (BSF) official said that though they have told Pakistan Rangers at sector level commander’s telephonic talk on Wednesday to keep the guns quiet and allow incident free festival, the advice seems to have not been taken in the right spirit.
“If the ceasefire violation continues and Rangers step up firing, we may again have to resort to heavy firing and celebrate live Diwali at the border,” the BSF official said.
Inspector general of Border Security Force (BSF) Jammu frontier, Rakesh Sharma said they (Pakistani Rangers) are trying to provoke by firing one or two rounds on their posts.
“They are inviting us to fire but we are not opening fire (because there is a festival). We are not retaliating to the extent what we should have,” he said.
Even as Pakistani forces were trying to provoke, Jammu and Kashmir police and 22 Rashtriya Riffles (RR) of army achieved a major success when they busted a militant hideout and recovered huge cache of arms and ammunition in a forest area of Lolab
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}