Indian security forces thwarted its attempts by “heavy tactical retaliation”
The Pakistani forces wanted to target these events during the festival which could have resulted in large casualties. (Photo: PTI)
New Delhi: The Pakistani forces had a deadly plan to kill a large number of Indian civilians living in villages along the international border on Dasara day on October 3 during the ongoing ceasefire violation
Top intelligence sources said that Pakistan was aware that most Indian villages close to the border organise major “Dasara melas” attended by a large number of people.
The Pakistani forces wanted to target these events during the festival which could have resulted in large casualties. However, the Indian security forces got wind of Pakistan’s plans and thwarted its attempts by “heavy tactical retaliation” which put the Pakistani Rangers on the defensive. “We knew Pakistan planned to kill innocent Indian villagers on Dasara. But we foiled their plans by accurate and specific shelling at their 45 border outposts due to which the Pakistani Rangers had to abandon these posts and hide,” a senior home ministry official said.
It was in the wake of this heavy shelling by Indian forces on October 3 that Pakistan finally realised that it was dealing with a formidable opponent, sources added. The Indian forces fired more than 10,000 rounds and lobbed as many as 500 mortar shells on Pakistani posts, making it the biggest response by security forces in a single day. Following this heavy firing by the Indian forces, as many as 25,000 villagers were evacuated from more than 40 villages in the Sialkot sector alone in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, specific intelligence inputs available with Indian agencies suggest that Hafiz Saeed, the head of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, had been camping close to the border south of the Pir Panjal range for the last few days and held several rounds of meetings with top officials of the Pakistani Rangers and operatives of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.
Sources said the heavy firing from Pakistan in the Sialkot sector coincided with the presence of Saeed and other top militants of Lashkar and Jaish in the region. This is also the first time that Pakistani security forces have resorted to a major ceasefire violation south of the Pir Panjal as earlier it was mostly confined to the northern side of the mountain range in the Kashmir Valley.
"There is no denying the fact that the Pakistani Rangers were being assisted by heavily-armed militants from Lashkar and Jaish. Further, it is almost certain that Hafiz Saeed played a key role in this ceasefire violation which has happened in a relatively new sector," the home ministry official added.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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