Shelling continues at India-Pakistan border, 18,000 civilians flee homes

SRINAGAR | NEW DELHI: The death toll in India rose to 12 and civilians fled the areas straddling the Line of Control (LoC) in the Kashmir valley and international border in the Jammu region in large numbers as Indian and Pakistani troops continued to exchange fire and engage in their most serious confrontation in over a decade.

India and Pakistan also sparred at the United Nations over the ceasefire violations and New Delhi made it clear that its armed forces are “fully ready” to respond to “provocation”.

Attending an Indian Air Force function, Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured the nation that “everything will be fine soon”. Retaliatory fire from the Indian side had inflicted massive damage on the other side of the border, and as per latest reports, over a dozen casualties have been reported.

Meanwhile, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval held a high-level meeting, attended by home secretary Anil Goswami, Intelligence Bureau chief Syed Ibrahim and BSF representatives, on the situation in border. Goswami was briefed about the situation by Director General of the BSF, DK Pathak, who is in Jammu. The three Service chiefs also met defence minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday. Pakistan’s National Security Committee is expected to meet on Friday.

A senior BSF official said Indian forces had retaliated to machine gun and mortar attacks on about 60 positions along over 200-km stretch of the border on Wednesday. Some 18,000 Indian civilians have fled their homes in the lowlands around Jammu due to the fighting, and have taken refuge in schools and relief camps.

Unofficial figures put their number at more than 30,000.

BSF chief Pathak said Pakistani troops were targeting residential areas because they weren’t able to cause significant damages to the BSF posts. “They are targeting the residential areas because they think that they are not being able to cause any huge damage to the BSF posts, which is wrong and should not happen,” said Pathak adding that there are no talks about flag meeting.