Jammu, Mar 3: There were no reports of Indo-Pakistan skirmishes along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch and Rajouri districts since Saturday night, even as the army was on high alert and maintained a tight vigil, officials said.
“Barring ceasefire violation in Nowshera sector of Rajouri district from 12.30 pm to 2.30 pm on Saturday, there were no reports of firing in the rest of the sectors since 11 pm Friday,” they said.
“There is no report of firing and shelling by Pakistan along the LoC overnight…the army is on high alert and maintaining tight vigil,” a defence spokesperson said.
Pakistan army, as per reports, too said there have been no casualties on their end during the past 24 hours, a statement by Pakistan Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Sunday.
“The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), in its update on the situation along the Line of Control (LoC), said that after heavy exchange of fire on the night between March 1 and 2, there is relative calm along the LoC with intermittent firing last night in Neza Pir, Jandrot and Baghsar sectors,” it said.
The cross-border shelling witnessed a spurt after India’s air strike in Balakot in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Tuesday, 12 days after the attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama, killing 49 soldiers.
More than 80 forward villages were targeted by Pakistan in over 50 skirmishes in Rajouri and Poonch districts alone since Tuesday last, which left four civilians, including three members of a family, dead and several others injured.
Similarly, Pakistan Army too said Saturday that two of its soldiers were killed in an exchange of fire with Indian forces near the Line of Control. The soldiers were killed in the Nakiyal Sector of the LoC, it said.
“Reports of casualties of Indian troops and damage to post due to effective response by Pakistan Army,” the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.
Separately, the Pakistan army claimed that Indian firing was continuing across the LoC, which killed as two civilians and injured two others, including a woman.
The lull in the cross-border firing came as a major relief to the border residents, who faced intense shelling by Pakistan, forcing many families to move to safer places.
Amid heightened Indo-Pak tension, Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat visited the Jammu-based White Knight Corps on Saturday to review the operational preparedness and exhorted all the soldiers to remain vigilant.
