Pak violates truce in Uri, Army lodges protest

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, May 17

The Indian and Pakistani armies exchanged fire along the Line of Control (LoC) in north Kashmir’s Uri sector on Monday night.

Srinagar-based defence spokesman Col NN Joshi said the violation was initiated by Pakistan in the Kamalkote sector of Uri, nearly 120 km from Srinagar, and it was responded “appropriately”.

“There was small arms firing in Uri last night. The firing from across was appropriately retaliated. There is no report of any casualty so far,” said the defence spokesman, adding that the firing was of “localised nature”. The firing started around 9.45 pm and continued for half an hour, Colonel Joshi said.

Sources said the Indian Army lodged a protest over the ceasefire violation with its Pakistani counterpart in Uri through a hotline today.

The violation — the first in the Uri sector this year — took place at a time when militants have stepped up efforts to sneak into the Valley from across the LoC. There have been instances in the past where Indian posts have been targeted by the Pakistani army to help militants sneak into Kashmir.

Soon after the ceasefire violation, the Army carried out massive searches in the Kamalkote forest area.

Since India and Pakistan announced the ceasefire on the border in 2003, there have been many major and minor violations along the LoC in Kashmir. The last major ceasefire violation took place in October 2012 at Churanda in Uri, which left three civilians, including a woman, dead.

Last year, there were many ceasefire violations and also an air space violation by Pakistan in the Nowgam sector, in which a Junior Commissioned Officer of the Army and two BSF jawans were killed.

This year, the police said 18 militants had infiltrated into the Valley till April. Last year, 35 militants had infiltrated into Kashmir from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.