J&K: Fresh ceasefire violation by Pakistan

According to reports, the fresh violation occurred  from 1740 hours to 1800 hours.

Union Minister of Defence Arun Jaitley on Monday gave a stern warning to Pakistan after ceasefire violations by saying that Indian armed forces are ready to retaliate with full force.

Jaitley who has been going under treatment at AIIMS for few days was released on Monday morning.

Immediate after that, he swung into action by giving a stern warning to Islamabad.

Deploring the recent ceasefire activities by Pak forces along the Line of Control (LOC), Jaitley said, Indian armed forces are fully ready to retaliate to the Pakistani provocations.

"Let everybody be assured that our armed forces and para-military forces are fully ready and they are responding to each of these provocations from Pakistan," Jaitley said.

He asserted that Pakistan that it should realise that the kind of environment it was generating between the two countries was certainly not going to help in normalising relations.

"This is resulting in a series of ceasefire violations as a result of which innocent civilians have lost their lives. The onus of creating a positive environment is on Pakistan which is utterly failing to do so," he added.

In the worst ceasefire violation by Pakistan along LOC in recent times, five villagers were killed and 29 people injured in heavy firing by Pakistani troops along the International Border in Jammu and Kashmir after midnight on Sunday.

Two women and a 13-year-old girl were among those killed when Pakistan rangers resorted to firing at posts of the Border Security Force (BSF) and villages in the Arnia sub-sector of Jammu at around 1.30 am.

There was heavy mortar shelling and they fired automatic weapons.

Intermittent firing continues at Arnia and RS Pura sectors by the Pakistani soldiers.

Incidents of firing have also been reported in BG sector in Poonch since Monday morning, sources said.

The Indian Army said that the injured were shifted to the government medical college in Jammu. Emergency relief teams have been rushed to the area.

Shelling from across the border was quite heavy.

Some mortar shells reportedly fell inside a bus stand that is more than 4-km away from the International Border (IB), sources said.

This is the 11th time Pakistani troops have violated the ceasefire since Oct 1.

There have been seven ceasefire violations along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch and three along the IB in Jammu.

(Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri)