New Delhi/Jammu: India on Monday took a tough stance against Pakistan over the killing and mutilation of two of its soldiers with the Army chief asserting that his forces ‘reserve the right to retaliate’ and a strong protest being lodged at the flag meeting along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district.
The brigadier-level flag meeting was held at Chakan da Bagh on the LoC, about 250 km northwest of Jammu.
The January 8 killing of Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh and Lance Naik Hemraj – who was decapitated and his head taken away – in the Mendhar sector in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir by Pakistani troops was a ‘gruesome and an unpardonable act’, army chief General Bikram Singh said.
After the flag meeting, Northern Command spokesperson Lt. Col. Rajesh Kalia said in a statement: “Our representative expressed our grave concern over the barbaric act by Pakistani troops in the recent ambush of our patrol in Mendhar Sector. The Indian army raised a strong protest against the heinous mutilation of our deceased soldier’s bodies… it was against the tenets of the Geneva Convention as also in contravention to all established norms of soldierly behaviour.”
The statement added: “Such a dastardly and cowardly act is totally unacceptable and is a premeditated attempt to undermine the ceasefire agreement of 2003, which can lead to further escalation. Repetition of such acts will not be tolerated.”
“The Pakistani delegation leader denied their involvement in the incident and reiterated the false and fabricated allegations that our (Indian) troops crossed the Line of Control and killed one Pakistani soldier and injured another,” the statement said.
Earlier, the Army chief said it was possible that the Pakistani army used terrorists as it had done in the past. He said he was not ruling out the involvement of terrorist group Lashkar-e-Toiba founder Hafiz Saeed in the killing of the two Indian soldiers. (IANS)
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