Villagers look at one of the houses damaged in firing by Pakistani troops at Village Nanga, in Ramgarh sector of Jammu and Kashmir state, India. (Source: AP) Villagers look at one of the houses damaged in firing by Pakistani troops at Village Nanga, in Ramgarh sector of Jammu and Kashmir state, India. (Source: AP)

An eerie calm prevailed along the 200 km long international border from Kathua to Pargwal sector as Pakistani mortar guns remained silent on Thursday night.

Significantly, the mortar shelling from across the border stopped after Border Security Force retaliated to continuous ceasefire violations by Pakistani Rangers since the night of October 3rd. As Pakistani Rangers pounded civilian areas on the Indian side with 81 mm mortar shells, the BSF too used equal caliber weapons causing wide spread damage across the border forcing many to ask India for holding a flag meeting to deescalate tension.

Also read: Jaitley warns Pakistan, Modi praises troops

India, however, refused to talk to Pakistan or hold flag meeting, saying that it should stop firing on civilian population on the Indian side. The Union Defence Minister Arun Jaitley warned Pakistan against incidents of ceasefire violation by its troops, saying that India will make its misadventure unaffordable.

“There has been no firing along the border tonight since 8.20 pm,’’ said sources in the BSF. The Pakistani Rangers had fired at four BSF border out posts in Hiranagar for only 20 minutes beginning at 8 pm, they added.

Eight people have so far died and over 80 injured in continued firing and mortar shelling on civilian population on the Indian side by Pakistan since October 3rd. Of them, two women had died in Samba sector on Wednesday.

Since situation along the border continues to escalate, the Jammu Kashmir government has set up “crisis management groups’’ to evacuate people from areas affected by shelling from across the border.

In light of Pakistani Rangers and troops targeting civilian population on the Indian side, “crisis management groups have been activated along the borderline from Poonch to Kathua districts to first evacuate people and then provide food and shelter to them,” said Inspector General of Police for Jammu zone, Rajesh Kumar, here.

The Pakistani shelling during the last one week had come after nearly a month long lull along the international border. The Rangers had started targeting civilian population on Indian side of the border less than 24 hours after both the US President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington agreed to make “joint and concerted efforts to dismantle safe havens for terror and criminal networks like Lashkar-e-Toiba, D-Company, Al Qaeda and Haqqani network’’.

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