Killings amid mortar shelling
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 10: In a suspected BAT strike, two porters were martyred, one of them beheaded, while three others were seriously injured near the Line of Control (LoC) at village Kasalian in Gulpur sector of Poonch district today.
Sources said Pakistan army fired three to four mortar shells targeting five porters who were carrying logistics for the troops in forward area close to the fencing on the LoC at Kasalian this morning. Simultaneously, the members of Border Action Team (BAT) of Pakistan were reported to have intruded into the Indian territory and beheaded one of the seriously injured porter.
They took the head with them before returning to Pakistan.
Another injured porter later succumbed to injuries sustained in mortar shelling taking death toll to two.
Bodies of two porters martyred in the BAT action and three injured were evacuated by the troops from the spot and shifted to District Hospital Poonch where the injured were responding to the treatment. All of them had sustained splinter injuries in the mortar explosions.
The martyrs have been identified as Mohammad Aslam, 28, son of Mohammad Sadeeq and Altaf Hussain, 23, son of Noor Din, both residents of Kasalian, Gulpur. Injured were identified as Mohammad Saleem, 24, son of Maqbool Hussain, Moham-mad Showket, 28, son of Mohammad Sadeeq and Nawaz Ahmed, 35, son of Mohammad Rashid, all residents of Kasalian.
Indian Army immediately retaliated Pakistan shelling and firing and was reported to have inflicted heavy damages on Pakistan side. However, exact details of the damages suffered by Pakistan couldn’t be ascertained immediately.
Bodies of the porters were buried this evening at their ancestral village. Police parties headed by SSP Poonch Romesh Angral and other senior officers of civil and police administration were present at the burial. Large number of local people also joined the burial procession.
Sources described as “gruesome” the targeting of innocent and unarmed porters by the Pakistan’s Border Action Teams and said Pakistan will be given a befitting reply for this act.
Pakistan army has been frequently resorting to ceasefire violations and trying to facilitate infiltration attempts by the militants on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir since August 5 when the Central Government had scrapped special Constitutional provisions of J&K and bifurcated the erstwhile State into two Union Territories.
In retaliatory Indian action, Pakistan army has suffered heavy casualties and infrastructural damages.
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