JAMMU: After nine days of heavy mortar shelling and gunfire by Pakistan, firing along International Border(IB) in Jammu frontier subsided on Friday even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it has been taught a “befitting lesson” with the army “shutting their mouth”.
“There was no cross-border firing during the intervening night of 9th and 10th October along the International Border in Jammu and Samba Districts”, a BSF spokesman told PTI. The firing paused after a strong retaliatory response by India.
The last instance of firing by Pakistan along IB was when its Rangers targeted four BSF Border Out Posts (BOP) in Hiranagar sector of Kathua District for 20 minutes from 8:00 PM on Thursday night, the spokesman said, adding that earlier around 60 BOPs used to be targeted.
There has been a lull in firing from across the border at the Line of Control (LoC) for the last couple of days.
“Pakistan has got a befitting lesson. They will not dare to repeat it again. Our jawans have shut their mouth,” Modi said addressing an election rally in Dhamangaon in Maharashtra.
The Indo-Pak border conflict escalation marked by over three dozen ceasefire violations along the 192-km long IB in Jammu frontier since October one had been the worst since the 2003 ceasefire accord between India and Pakistan.
The firing incidents left eight persons dead and nearly 90 people, including 13 securitymen injured. Also, around 32,000 people have fled from their border homes leaving 113 hamlets deserted along the IB.
India yesterday sent out a strong warning to Pakistan, saying it will have to bear an “unaffordable” cost if it persists with its “adventurism” even as Prime Minister Modi asserted that aggression from across the border is being responded to with courage. India and Pakistan troops traded heaviest fire along the IB on the intervening night of 7th and 8th October after Pakistan Rangers shelled almost the entire IB by targeting 60 BOPs and over 130 border hamlets in Jammu, Samba and Kathua Districts of Jammu and Kashmir.
On 8th October, two women of a family were killed and 15 others injured in heavy mortar shelling and firing by Pakistani troops along the IB.
Five villagers were killed and 34 injured on the intervening night of 5th and 6th October in heavy mortar shelling and firing from across the IB and LoC in Jammu and Poonch sectors.
On 3rd October, Pakistani troops and rangers violated the ceasefire four times by shelling forward areas and villages along the LoC and IB in Gulmarg sector of Kashmir Valley and Poonch and Jammu sectors in Jammu region in which a girl was killed and six persons were injured.
On 2nd October, Pakistani troops targeted border hamlets in forward areas along LoC in Poonch District by shelling them with mortar bombs and firing resulting in injuries to six civilians.