Jammu: Five Indian soldiers have been killed in a Pakistani attack on an Indian Army post along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch, Jammu and Kashmir. While four soldiers belonged to the 21st Battalion of the Bihar Regiment, one was from the Maratha Light Infantry Regiment. The martyred soldiers included a subedar and four jawans. One soldier has been injured in the attack.
A group of 10-12 soldiers of 21st Battalion of the Bihar Regiment, which is deployed in the sector, along with a few from the Maratha Light Infantry Regiment were patrolling the border on Monday night when they were ambushed at Chakan da Bagh by 15-16 Pakistani intruders which included terrorists as well as soldiers of the Pakistani Army. The Pakistani soldiers entered the Indian side of the LoC and ambushed an Indian post called Sarla late on Monday night.
The Indian soldiers were on a border domination exercise when they were fired upon at around midnight. Sources say the attack took place between midnight and 1 am.
Sources say that attack was carried out by a group of Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists with the help of Pakistani soldiers. Lashkar-e-Toiba has created a Border Action Team (BAT) which has highly trained terrorists for carrying out such attacks with the help of Pakistani Army.
It being summer season, the Paksitani Army is trying to push in as many terorirsts as possible and that is why such attacks are being launched. An attack of such a big magnitude is only carried out after carefully studying the area and the number of troops in the area. The area where the attack is carried out is is first surveyed by the terror group which then gives the green signal to the Pakistani Army commandos who then carry out the strike.
"Last night we heard the sound of firing almost all night. It also rained in the night. We knew something had gone wrong," said Mohammad Fazl, a villager from near the LoC.
While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh make a statement in Parliament, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Shukla called it an "unfortunate incident". "This is a very unfortunate. The Defence Minister (AK Antony) is aware of the matter and he will take the necessary steps," said Shulka.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tweeted about the attack on the Indian post and the casualties. "Was briefed early this morning about news that 5 of our soldiers had been killed on the LOC. My heartfelt condolences to their next of kin," tweeted Omar.
He added that such attacks cannot help efforts to normalise or even improve relations with Pakistan. He also questioned Pakistani government's recent overtures.
Major General (Retd) Afsir Karim said that the Pakistani Army always carries out such attacks after careful planning. "Only indulging in talks will not help. An attack should be answered with an attack and those involved in such acts should be vanquished," said the former Army officer.
In January a group of Pakistan Army soldiers had raided across the LoC in Mendhar sector and killed two Indian soldiers after attacking an area domination patrol party of the Indian Army. In the ensuing gunfight two Indian soldiers were killed and the head of one of them cut off by the intruders.
There were 93 ceasefire violations by Pakistan along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir in 2012, taking the total number since 2010 to 188, Parliament was told Monday. While two Army personnel were killed during these violations in 2010, one was killed in 2012.
In the recent weeks Pakistan has indicated that it wants to resume the dialogue process with India. But the latest attack is likely to cast a shadow on the resumption of the Indo-Pak dialogue process. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif are slated to meet in New York in September on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session.####
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