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On his birthday, BSF jawan killed by Pakistan sniper at border in Samba
Head constable RP Hazra was killed after Pakistan forces “sniped” from across the border in the Samba sector of Jammu and Kashmir.
A Border Security Force (BSF) jawan was killed by a Pakistani sniper on Wednesday in unprovoked firing at the international border in Jammu and Kashmir’s Samba sector, triggering a heavy gun fight between the two countries.
An official source said it was BSF jawan RP Hazra’s birthday on Wednesday.
The 51-year-old jawan is from Murshidabad in West Bengal. He was posted with the 173rd battalion of the BSF.
Hazra was deployed at Chak Dulma post in Hiranagar subsector of Samba district and was hit by a sniper bullet around 4.15pm. He was taken to the district hospital where he died of his injuries.
“After the unwarranted, unprovoked and inhuman act of the Pakistani sniper, BSF opened heavy fire on Pakistani posts opposite Chak Dulma and heavy exchange of fire is still on,” said a police officer.
Last year, Pakistan violated the ceasefire agreement with India 882 times along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. Thirty people — 14 army personnel, 12 civilians and four BSF personnel — were killed in the ceasefire violations.
Tensions between India and Pakistan have spiralled recently, with New Delhi crying foul over the treatment of the family of death row convict Kulbhushan Jadhav and Islamabad blaming its neighbour for “unprovoked” firing that killed three of its soldiers.
Commandos of the Indian Army crossed the Line of Control (LoC) recently in the Poonch sector and killed three Pakistani soldiers in a “tactical retaliatory strike”.
The attack was carried out two days after four Indian Army personnel, including a Major, were allegedly killed by Pakistan in an ambush in Kashmir’s Keri-Rajouri sector, and a day before the Indian foreign ministry hit out at Pakistan for the treatment meted out in Islamabad on Monday to the wife and mother of death-row convict Kulbhushan Jadhav.
