After nine days of heavy firing and mortar shelling from across the border, the situation de-escalated along the 192-km long International Border in Jammu. But Pakistani forces opened fire on four Indian border out posts in Kathua district of the Jammu and Kashmir.
“There was no cross-border firing during the intervening night of October 9 and 10 along the International Border in Jammu and Samba districts”, a BSF spokesman said.
However, there was firing by Pakistan along IB in Hiranagar sector of Kathua district for 20 minutes from 2000 hours to 2020 hours involving four BSF BoPs, the spokesman said. “There was no loss of life or damage”, he added.
The IB has witnessed heavy firing for nine days that has left eight persons dead and injured nearly 90 people, including 13 securitymen.
Over 32,000 people have fled from their homes leaving 113 hamlets deserted along the IB.
India and Pakistan troops traded heavy fire along the IB on the intervening night of October 7 and 8 after Pakistan Rangers shelled almost the entire IB targeting 60 border out posts (BoPs) and over 130 border hamlets in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts of Jammu and Kashmir, in which 15 people including 3 BSF personnel were injured.
Meanwhile, Pakistan is holding a high-level meeting to review the border situation and decide the next move. The Pakistan Rangers apparently, did not expect the level of retaliation shown by the BSF. India’s deployment at the International Border is also two times as that of Pakistan.
While India has been blaming Pakistan for aggression along the border, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tasnim Aslam Khan strongly condemned the “unprovoked aggression of India against Pakistan both at LOC and International Border.”
Tasnim claimed that Pakistan never started the violations on its own but “if there is aggression by India, we respond to it. We are already doing that and will continue. We did not start it so we will not stop it,” she warned adding that if India continued with the firing, they too, will not stay silent.
