Officer was 6 days short of 23rd b’day

SRINAGAR: An Army officer was among four soldiers killed in cross-border shelling by Pakistani troops in Rajouri district of Jammu region on Sunday evening. Two others were injured. Captain Kapil Kundu was the second Army officer to have died in Pakistani fire in the last 40 days.Pakistani forces also violated the ceasefire in the Sunderbani area, injuring a BSF assistant sub-inspector. Firing was on at both places when reports last came in.Earlier in the day, two teenagers and a jawan were injured in the Shahpur sector of Poonch district in shelling from across the border.Rajouri deputy commissioner Shahid Iqbal Choudary ordered closure of all 84 schools close to the border, from Sunderbani to Manjakote, for the next three days. Deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh said the administration had already evacuated people to safety. “There is heavy firing and shelling going on along the LoC in my Nowshera assembly constituency,” he said.Apart from Kundu, others who died were identified as riflemen Ram Avtar and Shubam Singh, and havaldar Roshan Lal. Another soldier, Niak Iqbal Ahmed, is being treated for his injuries in hospital.Official sources said the Pakistani army opened unprovoked fire on the Army’s 15 J&K Light Infantry posts in the Bhimber Gali sector on Sunday. “The Indian Army retaliated strongly and effectively, and heavy damage has been inflicted on Pakistani posts,” an Army spokesperson said, vowing “a befitting response”.Captain Kapil Kundu, who was killed in Pakistani shelling along the LoC on Sunday, was six days short of his 23rd birthday, a senior Army official said. Captain Kundu was from Ransika village in Gurgaon district.J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti expressed anguish over the killings. “Pained to hear that three soldiers were killed & two injured along the Line of Control in Rajouri. My condolences to the deceased’s families,” she tweeted.