Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Oct 21: A Border Security Force (BSF) jawan and a Special Police Officer (SPO) were injured while a couple of cattle were killed and others injured as there was no let up in heavy shelling and firing by the Pakistani Rangers along the International Border in most parts of Jammu sector.
Such was intensity of the shelling that two 82mm mortar shells fell at Arnia Bus Stand last midnight while another shell landed near Primary Health Centre (PHC) Kanachak this morning causing injuries to a SPO. Over two dozen villages apart from the BSF posts came under heavy firing from the Rangers.
The Rangers fired mortars, rockets and bullets from medium to small firearms targeting forward villages and BSF posts at Ramgarh, Arnia, Samba, Hiranagar, RS Pura, Pargwal, Kanachak and Garkhal throughout the last night. Though heavy shelling and firing ceased this morning, intermittent exchanges were reported from some places during the day.
At about 9.40 pm tonight, the Rangers opened firing at Abdullian post in R S Pura sector and Nikowal in Arnia. The BSF retaliated. The firing stopped after half an hour. Rest of the border was calm tonight.
Panic stricken people in the border villages mostly remained confined to indoors even during the day. Authorities have advised the people in forward areas to keep their lights off during the night as the Rangers were directly targeting the civilian houses to inflict casualties. They have also ordered the closure of Government institutions in the border areas to avoid any casualties.
Amid heightened tensions, Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde is visiting here tomorrow. He will visit Battalion Headquarters, Samba of the BSF, Hiranagar police station and chair Unified Headquarters meeting before returning to New Delhi.
Official sources told the Excelsior that this was for the first time that two mortar shells fell inside Arnia Bus Stand last midnight. The shells created large crater at the Bus Stand but there were no casualties as the place was isolated at that time. Another mortar shell fell near PHC Kanachak causing injuries to SPO Girdhari Lal, who was on way to Kanachak police station from his house this morning. Police shifted injured SPO to Government Medical College (GMC), Jammu. A BSF jawan also sustained injuries in the firing at Ramgarh sector.
A shell fell in the house of Balbir Singh at village Jedra in Ramgarh sector of Samba district past midnight last night and didn’t explode. The family, which had confined itself inside the house, had a narrow escape.
“Had the powerful shell exploded, it would have devastated the house and caused casualties of the house inmates,” sources said. Alert BSF jawans took away the shell to an isolated place and defused it.
At Chak Nazar in Nandpur and Bhambo Chak, two cattle were killed and half a dozen others were injured after being hit by pellets of shells and bullets, which rained in entire Ramgarh sector throughout the last night including Narayanpur, SM Pur, Chambalayal, Nanga and surroundings.
The mortar shells, their splinters and bullets hit several houses or fell in their premises while few others landed close to civil population in Ramgarh and Arnia sectors during the night. Several people had a narrow escape in the shelling and firing. Pindi, Pittal and Jabowal were the worst affected forward areas of Arnia sector.
Sources said the heavy scale shelling and firing by the Rangers has triggered panic among the border residents especially after direct targeting of the civilian areas and landing of shells in Arnia Bus Stand, Kanachak PHC and houses of the people at various other places along the International Border.
While shelling and firing had started in Ramgarh and Arnia sectors at about 10 pm last night, it resumed at Pargwal, Kanachak and Akhnoor sectors at 2.30 am early today.
Nikowal, Mala Bela, OP Chenab, Braham Bela and Deoura in Pargwal sector, Sidharwan and Garkhal in Akhnoor sector, Gol Pattan, Darorha, Old Kanachak, Beli Azmat and New Kanachak in Kanachak sectors received mortars and rain of bullets till early this morning.
The BSF jawans retaliated effectively at all the places. Pakistan was also reported to have suffered damage and casualties in retaliatory firing by the BSF.
With two injuries of BSF jawan and a SPO last night, the two number of persons injured in Pakistan shelling has gone up to 11. Five civilians including three children and two women and four BSF jawans had earlier been injured during past about a week of heavy shelling and firing by the Rangers.
Authorities have advised the villagers all along the International Border in Jammu sector to keep lights of their houses switched off after 8 pm as the Rangers were directly targeting the civil population and the lights could help them identify the houses.
Authorities have already ordered closure of Government institutions in the border villages especially those falling in firing range of the Rangers. Some of the school buildings have been identified for accommodating the border villagers in case of migration from the forward areas as a part of the Contingency Plan put in force all along the border in the wake of heavy pounding of the forward areas from across the border.
People from Suchetgarh Kullian in Samba sector have already migrated to Kali Bari Community Hall near Samba railway station while people of Jasso Chak and SM Pur had last night migrated to Radha Swami Satsang Ghar, Ramgarh.
Sources said only women and children have migrated from the border villages while male members were holding back to houses for protection of the property. Even some women and children also returned to the houses during the day but come back to safer areas in the night.
In Hiranagar and Samba sector, only small arms firing was reported at Paharpur, Khwara, Kothay, Pansar and Mangu Chak.
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