A ceasefire violation was reported at the India-Pakistan border in the Uri sector of Kashmir’s Baramulla district on Tuesday.
The Indian Army confirmed that small arms fire was being exchanged with the Pakistani Army at the Line of Control in Lacchipora and Mahiyan Boniyar. The exchange of fire was continuing an hour after it started.
“Pakistani troopers resorted to heavy gunfire with small and automatic fire arms from across the Line of Control. No damage was caused to Indian posts,” a defence source said. “The fire was returned with equal calibre weapons.”
Union home minister Rajnath Singh called up the director general of the Border Security Force to give them a “free hand” to retaliate to the provocation, TV reports said.
Pakistan is often accused of firing at Indian posts to give cover to infiltrators.
The firing violates the 2003 ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan along the international boundary and the LoC — the de facto border that divides Jammu and Kashmir between the two neighbours.
The border skirmish came as New Delhi and Islamabad are locked in a bitter diplomatic war of words following the Uri terror attack, in which heavily armed militants, believed to be of Pakistan-based terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad, stormed an army base in Uri, killing 18 soldiers and injuring 22.
Pakistan has denied the allegations even as India claimed to have clinching evidence to support its claims.
The Indian Army has claimed to have recovered arms, ammunition, and food and medicine packets with Pakistani markings during combing operations at the military base in Uri.
India also claimed that the four militants who were gunned down during the gun fight that lasted about two-and-a-half hours were foreigners.
Source: Ittefaq