Posted on 01/20/2005 10:28:06 PM PST by Srirangan
Ten mortar shells were fired on Thursday night followed by light machine gun (LMG) fire from across the Line of Control (LoC) on Hamirpur post in Mendhar sector of Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district close on the heels of the first violation of ceasefire two days back.
Brigadier Dhruv Katoch of 16 Corps headquarters Jammu said that the small mortars and LMG firing lasted for 15 minutes from 1955 hours.
However, there was no casualty or damage to property in the shelling and firing, he said.
Asked whether this was the second violation of the truce by Pakistan along the LoC, he said "we are investigating and it is too early to blame anybody as even militants have these small mortars and machine guns".
Katoch said there was no firing of 82 mm mortars, which are bigger in size.
Indian Army sources have confirmed that the Pakistan army fired mortar shells from across the Line of Control in the Mendhar sector late on Thursday night.
This is the second time the Pakistan army has resorted to shelling this week.
The Pakistan army opened fire on Tuesday on the Durga and Banwat posts in the Poonch Rajouri sector, presumably to provide cover to infiltrators trying to sneak into Indian territory. The Indian army had earlier killed six terrorists in the same sector.
However, the Indian Army refuses officially to highlight the incident. The ministry of external affairs too refuses to comment on the ceasefire violation by the Pakistan army. Pakistan had denied that its troops opened fire on the Dugra and Banwat posts on Tuesday.
The violation of the ceasefire comes at a time when Jammu and Kashmir Governor General S N Sinha (retd) and General Nirmal Chandra Vij, the chief of the army staff, are expected to visit the LoC, which separates India and Pakistan in the Kashmir valley, and dedicate the fencing of the border to the nation.
The ceasefire between the Indian and Pakistan armies has been in place since December 2003. Indian security forces have since fenced the border to halt infiltration by armed terrorists.
Now it is unlikely that the Pak military command is continuing such practices, but some sections of the Pak Army could now acting autonomously.
This could be just a precursor to open rebellion against General Musharraf's command. He ofcourse has indeed become very unpopular in fundamentalistic Islamic Pakistan due to his support to the USA.
India has not counter attacked Pakistani positions in Kashmir despite obvious provocations and violations, probably trusting the Pak Army to sort out its dissidents and rebel's. But media and internal pressures will force India to abandon its stand on further provocations.
Indian Kashmir is never, ever going to become part of Pakistan, even in 10,000,000 years.
"Pakistan had denied that its troops opened fire on the Dugra and Banwat posts on Tuesday."
--It was the ghost of the dead pakistani soldiers (of Kargil war)that opened fire. They are angry they didnt get their promised 72 virgins.
Ah but, Pakistan is a staunch ally in the war on terrorism, and can of course be trusted with nukes... (HEAVY sarcasm here, of course).
WEll, what else do you expect? You can't trust a Muslime
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