7 Pak soldiers shot on Jammu border: BSF

TT, New Delhi, Oct. 21: In a flare-up in the continuing series of ceasefire violations on the frontier in Jammu and Kashmir, India's border guard claimed this evening that it had killed seven Pakistani counterparts and a militant using small arms and mortars after one of its own was critically wounded by a sniper.

India's Border Security Force took the unusual step of issuing a "Press Note" this evening to claim the kills of Pakistani Rangers and the militant in the Hira Nagar sector of Jammu.

India recognises the frontier here as the International Boundary but Pakistan disputes it as a "working boundary". This is a stretch of about 20 kilometres just south of the Line of Control that runs northwards from Sangam near Akhnoor.

Pakistan's Inter Services Public Relations spokesperson General Asim Bajwa denied the killings.

"Indians resorted to unprovoked fire/shelling on working bdry in Shakargarh sec toda. Pak Rangers befittingly responded. No loss on Pak side-1 (sic)," he tweeted.

The BSF statement said one of its troopers, Constable Gurnam Singh, was injured by a bullet. "His condition is critical," it added. The constable is in a hospital in Jammu.

BSF sources claimed they had intercepted radio chatter on the Pakistani side in which the Pakistan Rangers' Chak Saman post had reported that five of their men had been killed.

They said the intense firing this morning after 9.30 followed the foiling of "an audacious infiltration bid in the area of village Bobiyan of Hira Nagar sector in Jammu" last evening.

The BSF described its response as an "aggressive offensive".

The BSF said it "is on high alert all along the International Boundary and ready to foil any infiltration attempt".

The high alert was sounded in the wake of the September 18 killings of 19 Indian Army soldiers in Uri near the Line of Control and the September 29 "surgical strikes" the Indian Army claimed.

The firing in Jammu is a sign of the cascading impact of that violence. But the BSF, which is under the Union home ministry, is not under the command of the army in the Jammu frontier though they maintain a close liaison. In times of hostilities in the past, the BSF has been placed under the command of the army.

The Jammu frontier, which includes Sambha and Hiranagar sectors, saw intense shelling by both Pakistan and India on border outposts and villages in 2014. Villagers in India were evacuated then, as now.

The entire frontier is not fenced because rivers run through the border from India to Pakistan. The region is mostly flat with tall elephant grass and rice paddies.

IB alert

The Intelligence Bureau has issued an alert saying six Lashkar terrorists, camping in Sukha Chak village in Pakistan, could cross over either through the Ujh river near Miniyari in Hiranagar sector or through Dinanagar sector in Punjab's Gurdaspur district.