NEW DELHI: With cross-border firing escalating, Home Minister Rajnath Singh today reviewed the situation along the Indo-Pak border where eight civilians were killed and 22 injured due to Pakistani shelling and two Pakistani soldiers killed after Indian forces retaliated.
The meeting, attended by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Army chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag and other top officials, took stock of the situation along the International Border (IB) and the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir.
The top security brass briefed the Home Minister and the Defence Minister the steps taken to counter firing by Pakistani forces, official sources.
Since early morning, Pakistan troops resorted to heavy shelling of hamlets and military posts in Samba, Jammu, Poonch and Rajouri districts along the IB and the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Pakistani troops used heavy calibre weapons like 120 mm and 82 mm mortar bombs, army said.
The Border Security Force, deployed along the IB, today said it had destroyed 14 posts of Pakistani Rangers in retaliatory action in Ramgarh and Arnia sectors of Jammu frontier.
Army sources also said two Pakistani soldiers were killed in retaliatory firing along LoC opposite to Naushera sector of Rajouri district today.
In the wake of heavy Pakistani shelling, the government has ordered closure of all the 174 government and private schools situated along the IB and LoC in Jammu.
There have been more that 60 ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops along the LoC and IB in the state since surgical strikes against terror launch pads by the Indian Army in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on September 27.
PTI