Top officials of India’s Border Security Force (BSF) and its Pakistani counterparts had a telephonic conversation on Sunday to end the latest border flare up, officials said, after both sides suffered loss of lives and machinery in the heavy exchange of fire along the border in Jammu last week.
“Pakistan Rangers called up a Jammu based formation of BSF, which has been giving a befitting reply to Pakistan for unprovoked firing along the western border in Jammu region from last three days,” a senior BSF officer told Greater Kashmir.
“Pakistani Rangers called BSF officials in Jammu beseeching them to stop firing.”
The BSF officer claimed Pakistan’s response came after Indian troops precision targeted Pakistani shooting locations, inflicting heavy losses. He also showed this reporter footage of busting a Pakistani bunker by BSF forward troops in the Neck area of Akhnoor sector.
“For the last three days, the precision fire of BSF troopers on Pakistani firing locations inflicted heavy losses and on Saturday this firing found their mark with one of the rangers in chicken neck area,” an official told PTI. The BSF had lost two of its jawans in this latest round of unprovoked firing on the Jammu IB over the last few days.
A number of civilians were also killed and injured in the Jammu area due to this firing incident which was seen to have increased in the wake of Prime Minister NarendraModi’s day-long visit to Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday.
The phone interaction came in the backdrop of latest flare up along the IB in Jammu region that left six people dead within last week in Jammu sector.
A BSF trooper and four civilians were killed and over a dozen others wounded in Pakistrani firing along the border in RS Pura and Arnia sectors of Jammu on May 18, while another trooper was killed three days earlier in Samba sector.
Jammu and Kashmir witnessed a spurt in Pakistani shelling and firing along the IB and the Line of Control (LoC) this year. According to government data, this year 860 ceasefire violations occurred along the Line of Control and IB, mostly in the Jammu region.
NO BORDER TUNNEL FOUND
Border Security Force (BSF) on Sunday said no tunnel or hideout was found by troops along International border in Jammu sector, after recent suspicions that five militants had sneaked in from Pakistan.
“No tunnel was found on IB. We were working on probability. Otherwise, tunnel checking is now part of BSF daily operational duty,” a senior BSF officer told Greater Kashmir.
“Though the initial impression we got was that some infiltrators might have crossed. Going by the past cases we did not take any risk and launched massive search,” he said, adding on verification and analysis those five people may have been villagers or local smugglers.
“Still, nothing is ruled out, we are working on this along with other agencies too but nothing substantial has come out so far,” he said.
Earlier, BSF troopers along with army and police searched border areas in Kathua and Samba districts after reports that a trooper had noticed movement of some suspicious persons in Bobiya area of Hiranagar on May 14 that created panic among the border residents ahead of Prime Minister’s visit.
The searches followed by escalation in border firing last week.
The Director General of BSF, KK Sharma had also said a group of five militants has “reportedly” entered into the Indian territory “probably through a tunnel” across the International Border.