Hours after pleading with the BSF to stop firing, Pakistan has resumed its unprovoked firing and shelling along the International Border (IB) in Samba district of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday night. “Three border outposts are under fire from the Pakistani Rangers and the personnel deployed there are also retaliating to silence the Pakistani guns,” a senior BSF official told PTI. “However, there was no immediate report of any casualty in the shelling,” he said.
BSF had released a 19-second thermal-imagery footage of a Pakistani picket being destroyed across the border. “(Pakistan) Rangers called up the Jammu BSF formation today and beseeched to stop firing,” a BSF spokesman had reportedly said. “The befitting reply by the BSF units to the unprovoked shelling and firing across the IB by the Pakistani forces has forced them to plead for a ceasefire,” a senior official stated. The official further asserted, “For the last three days, the precision fire of BSF troopers on Pakistani firing locations inflicted heavy losses and yesterday this firing found their mark with one of the rangers in chicken neck area.” BSF Inspector General Ram Awtar stated, “There is a pattern to firing from Pakistan’s side. We have seen it for the past two years that Pakistani Rangers target the Indian side before and after the harvest season.”
Over 700 such incidents have been reported this year, leaving 38 people, including 18 security personnel, dead and numerous others injured. Earlier this year, the BSF had refused to exchange sweets with their Pakistani counterparts over ceasefire violations at the border. The decision was taken in light of the casualties India had suffered as a consequence of the ceasefire violations. The Ministry of External Affairs had also summoned Pakistan’s Deputy Commissioner Syed Hamid Shah over the repeated ceasefire violations.
Despite the repeated unprovoked violence by Pakistan, close aide of Rahul Gandhi, Mani Shankar Aiyer had praised Pakistan’s approach towards the Indo-Pak relationship and blamed India for not engaging in dialogue with Pakistan. More recently, Mani Shankar Aiyer praised Pakistan for its ‘tolerance’ and hailed Muhammad Ali Jinnah for his role in the freedom movement.
