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India, Pakistan trade heavy fire in Rajouri, LoC trade in Poonch suspended
Tuesday’s exchange of fire in Rajouri comes after a similar skirmish on Monday in Poonch in which three Indians including a BSF officer and three Pakistani soldiers were killed.
Indian and Pakistani troops exchanged heavy fire on Tuesday along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district.
Defence spokesman Lt Col Devender Anand said that at about 11.30 am on Tuesday, the Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked shelling with mortars and firing with small arms along the LoC in Nowshera sector of Rajouri district.
“The Indian Army is retaliating befittingly. Exchange of fire is going on,” he added.
The trans-LoC trade via Chakan-da-Bagh in Poonch was suspended on Tuesday after intense shelling by Pakistani troops on Monday left three dead including a five-year-old child and a Border Security Force (BSF) officer and 20 others injured in the frontier district.
Three Pakistani soldiers were also killed in Indian fire in Poonch sector on Monday.
A five-year old girl named Sobia Shareef, a 35-year-old woman Shaista Bi and an Inspector of the BSF T Alex Lalminlun were killed and 20 others were injured in indiscriminate shelling and firing by the Pakistan Army in Poonch on Monday.
As a precautionary measure, civil administration in Poonch district have closed all educational institutions within a five kilometre radius of the LoC in Poonch.
Custodian of the Chakan-da-Bagh trade facilitation centre, Fareed Kohil said, following intense shelling by Pakistani army on Monday the trade was suspended due to security reasons in wake of the casualties.
“Even on Tuesday there was small arms fire between the two sides,” he added.
Trade between of Jammu and Kashmir and PoK takes place via Chakan-Da-Bagh crossing point in Poonch and Salamabad in Baramulla. The places are also used by divided families to visit each other across the LoC.
The Pakistani Army’s publicity wing, Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), in its website acknowledged that three of its soldiers were killed in Indian firing in Poonch sector on Monday.
Tensions have been running high between India and Pakistan in the wake of a suicide attack by a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist Adil Mir on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama on February 14, which killed 40 troopers.
