A BSF soldier was killed and seven others including four civilians were injured as Pakistani Rangers resorted to ‘unprovoked’ firing along the International Border (IB) in the Arnia forward area of RS Pura sector in Jammu district on Wednesday.
The Pakistani Rangers chose to escalate the tension in the area a day after holding routine flag meeting with their BSF counterparts in the Ramgarh sector of Samba frontier. The flag meeting was specifically called to discuss the steps taken to trim down the wild grass along the border to maintain long distance vigil.
Following the major ceasefire violation, third in a row in the month of July, panic gripped the border area as four civilians working in their fields also received bullet injuries. The BSF troops effectively retaliated the fire and alerted other border outposts to prevent any infiltration bid from across the border.
According to official sources, second round of firing resumed late in the evening and was going on intermittently from both the sides till the time of filing the report. The first round of firing started around 11.10 am when Pakistani Rangers targeted Pittal Border outpost (BOP) of Arnia in the RS Pura sector.
The heavy exchange of fire continued for about 20 minutes in which four BSF jawans and four civilians were injured. The BSF jawans identified as Sanjay Dhar of 192 Batallion succumbed to his injuries in the Government medical college hospital while four civilians and other BSF jawans were receiving treatment.
Pakistani Rangers had earlier violated ceasefire agreement on July 12 and similar exchange of firing took place on July 1 along the loC in Mendhar sector of Poonch.