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Updated: Oct 15, 2019 19:32 IST

A woman was killed and a couple injured on Tuesday after Pakistani troops resorted to unprovoked firing and shot mortars on Indian posts and forward villages along the Line of Control (LoC) in two separate sectors of Poonch district in Jammu and Kashmir.

“Shamima Akhtar (25), wife of Maqsood Ahmad of Noonabandi village died while a couple identified as Naseema Akhtar and her husband Manzoor Hussain Shah of ward number 2 in Upper Qasba in Shahpur sector were injured in the shelling,” Poonch SSP, Ramesh Kumar Angral told Hindustan Times.

The officer informed that four buffaloes had also been killed and several houses were damaged in the cross-border shelling.

“On Tuesday, Pakistan not only increased the intensity but also spread the arc of fire targeting Indian posts and forward villages in Qasba, Shahpur, Kirni, Khari Karmara, Nakarkote and Degwar areas,” Darshan Kumar, a local from Poonch said.

There was panic among the people, he added.

Defence spokesperson Lt Col Devender Anand said, “The Pakistan Army violated the ceasefire by resorting to small-arms firing and mortar shelling in the Qasba and Kirni sectors of Poonch around 9.30 am.”

“We retaliated effectively but casualties on the other side were not known immediately,” he said.

The death of the woman took the number of fatalities in Pakistani firing along the LoC in the past four days to three.

Earlier, two Army jawans were killed in two separate incidents of ceasefire violation in the Nowshera sector of Rajouri district and the Uri sector in Baramulla district on Friday and Sunday respectively.

There has been a spurt in Pakistani shelling and firing near the LoC ever since India revoked Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir on August 5 and 6.

There have been more than 2100 unprovoked ceasefire violations this year by Pakistan in which 23 Indians have been killed.

Pakistan has sought to use the changes in Jammu and Kashmir, described by India as an internal matter, to internationalise the issue. Indian officials have rejected the Pakistani leadership’s contention that the matter could lead to war and accused Pakistan of using the issue to promote jihad and cross-border terrorism.