Indian border post fired upon from across LoC

Indian forward posts once again came under fire from across the border, in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir.

"There was firing from the Pakistan side across LoC on our forward post Copra in Sabzian sub-sector of Poonch district on Thursday night," a senior army officer told PTI on Friday.

But there was no loss of life or injury to anyone during the firing, he said, adding that Indian troops guarding the LoC observed total restraint and did not retaliate.

Ruling out ceasefire violations along LoC from Pakistani troops, he said terrorists may have fired at the post.

Since January, Pakistani troops have violated the five-year-old ceasefire agreement 32 times and provoked reactions from Indian troops, though the latter refused to retaliate on most occasions. Seven incidents of ceasefire violation in Poonch-Rajouri sector were reported during August and September.

The army's Director General of Military Operations had strongly protested to his Pakistani counterpart on several occasions over the ceasefire violations, especially during the Tangdhar firing and the Nowgam LoC breach.

Violations of the ceasefire by Pakistani troops have been reported from Jammu, Samba, Rajouri, Tanghdhar and Poonch sector this year during which a large number of terrorists have tried to infiltrate into India.

The army has assessed that the firing occurred whenever terrorist groups were making attempts to infiltrate into India and ceasefire violations could be a tactic being adopted by Pakistani troops to distract Indian forces.

Increased infiltration bids by terrorists were witnessed in the summer months this year with the state Assembly scheduled to go to polls. Close to 110 infiltration bids were reported in the last eight months as terrorists felt that the summer months were the best time of the year to augment their depleting strength in the Valley.