Jammu/New Delhi: Indian and Pakistani troops on Thursday engaged in heavy exchange of fire in the Poonch sector in Jammu and Kashmir, the scene of beheading of Indian soldiers, in fresh tensions as Pakistan closed the gates for cross-border trade at Chakan-Da-Bagh.
In the midst of the skirmishes, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said the liberalised Indo-Pak visa agreement would be implemented while Finance Minister P Chidambaram rejected Islamabad’s demand for a UN probe into the brutal killing of the two Indian soldiers on Tuesday by Pakistani troops.
Pakistan said it lost one soldier in Thursday’s exchange of fire, while claiming that the provocation took place from Indian side which was rejected by Army Headquarters in Delhi.
The Pakistani troops’ firing started in the Battal area in Poonch sector at 4:30 pm after which Indian troops gave a measured response.
The firing ceased at 6:10 pm, Army headquarters said here. The firing took place in the area guarded by the 13 Rajputana Rifles, whose two soldiers Lance Naiks Sudhakar Singh and Hemraj were killed and their bodies were mutilated by Pakistani troops, it said.
India also dismissed Pakistan’s allegations that its Army transgressed the Line of Control (LoC) in Uri sector on Sunday. In fact, Pakistan had carried out a ceasefire violation on the night of January 5-6 and ‘controlled retaliation’ was carried out by the Indian Army on January 6, an Army press release said on Thursday.
These developments came on a day the Pakistani army refused to allow trucks from India carrying goods at cross-Line of Control trade point in Poonch district.
25 trucks carrying goods, mostly vegetables, from India were not allowed to cross the LoC and enter Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir at Chakan-Da-Bagh, officials informed said. (PTI)
