Large number of school-going children remained stranded inside their classrooms in one of the middle schools along the Line of Control in Mendhar sector of Poonch during heavy firing by Pakistan Army early on Thursday morning.
As the mortar shelling continued for about two hours in the forward area, the school children along with their teachers took shelter inside their classes to ensure their safety.
Since August 15, the Pakistan Army is bent upon targeting civilian areas along the Line of Control (LoC) to provoke strong Indian retaliation.
According to eyewitness reports, during the brief lull period, the school authorities, directed the children to shift to safer places away from the school building. Eyewitnesses said, the children were seen rushing out of their class rooms and climbed hillocks to reach safer places. According to official sources, no student was hurt in the firing. All of them reached homes safely, official sources said.
According to Defence PRO in Jammu, Lt-Col Devendra Anand, “The Pakistan Army initiated ‘unprovoked’ ceasefire violation in Mendhar sector of Poonch around 11.30 a.m”. He said Pakistan army used small arms firing and mortar shelling to target the forward areas”.
In response, “The Indian Army gave befitting reply and retaliated effectively and strongly,” he added.
Meanwhile, tension prevailed in the forward areas as intermittent firing continued from both the sides.
Indian Army has lost three jawans and one civilian in recent incidents of ceasefire violations. Giving befitting reply to Pakistan Army, Indian Army too has caused heavy damages on the other side of the line of control and destroyed several Pakistani posts and inflicted heavy causalities to the Pakistan Army soldiers.
According to official sources, Pakistan army is resorting to at least 10 ceasefire violations in different sectors and desperately trying to push heavily armed group of terrorists inside the Indian territory. Indian army too is maintaining tight vigil along the line of contol to foil these attempts. Since August 2019, over 270 incidents of ceasefire violations have been reported along the line of control in Jammu and Kashmir, official sources said.
Since January 2019, over 1,850 incidents of ceasefire violations have been reported in the region.