3 civilians injured in LoC firing

When questioned on who started the attack, both — the BSF and the Pak Rangers — blamed the other for initiating firing without any provocation

Three more civilians were on Saturday injured as Indian and Pakistani border guards exchanged small arms and mortar fire along the International Border ( IB) in Jammu- Sialkot region.

Late on Friday, one civilian, a labourer, was killed and two others were wounded in Pakistan firing in Jammu’s Samba area. The Border Security Force ( BSF) retaliated by using same calibre weapons and the heavy exchanges broke weeks of lull. However, each side has blamed the other for initiating the firing without any provocation from the other.

The BSF said Pakistani Rangers resorted to firing without any provocation around 5 pm on Friday, targeting a group of labourers working at a culvert construction site in Samba sector. One labourer was killed and two others were injured, they said. They also said the Pakistani border guards targeted BSF border outposts ( BOPs) at nearby Manguchak.

In Sialkot, the Rangers officials said that it were the Indian side which initiated the firing and that it only returned the fire.

The heavy exchanges continued throughout the night, leaving two more civilians injured on the Indian side and one on the Pakistani side of the IB called “Working Boundary” in Pakistan.

Two civilians , who were injured in the Pakistani mortar shelling in Mawa village of Samba, have been identified as Surinder Kumar and Rohit Kumar. “Over one dozen villages were targeted by shelling and firing in Samba district,” a police official said, adding that a minibus was also damaged in Pakistan shelling, “but luckily nobody was inside when the vehicle was hit”.

The Rangers, meanwhile, targeted nine BSF BOPs along the IB in Samba sector. BSF officials said the Rangers fired on these BOPs of BSF in areas between River Basantar and River Treva in Samba sector using 82, 82 and 51 mm mortar bombs.

The BSF strongly retaliated to the Pakistani firing, the officials said. The police added that several villages on the Indian side including Sujanpur, Mawa, Bhati and Bobiya were hit by mortar shells from across the border.