india

Updated: May 22, 2019 15:13 IST

The Indian Army said on Wednesday a soldier was killed and seven others sustained minor injuries during training on the Line of Control in Mendhar sector of Poonch district in Jammu and Kashmir.

“On 22 May 2019 at 0915 hours, during a training activity on a military post in Mendhar Sector, one soldier was critically injured who later succumbed to his injuries. Two more soldiers who suffered non grevious injuries have been evacuated to the nearest Military Hospital and are stable,” said defence spokesman Lt Col Devender Anand.

The injured was flown in a helicopter to Northern Command’s hospital at Udhampur.

Official sources said soldiers of the Barasingha Battalion of the 12 Madras regiment were on a patrol in Dera Dibsi area along the hilly LoC when the incident occurred around 10.45am.

Pakistani terrorists are known to regularly plant IEDs along the LoC and the international border with an aim to inflict casualties on the Indian Army and Border Security Force (BSF).

There have been numerous instances of such IED blasts, a fact accepted and corroborated by the then Northern Army commander Lt Gen KT Parnaik. He had admitted on January 15, 2013, that frequent “accidental blasts” in KG sector of Poonch were actually mines planted by Pakistan to target and eliminate Indian soldiers.

Pakistan Rangers had violated the ceasefire in Samba sector on Tuesday evening. They fired small arms weapons at a post in Bainglard area of Samba sector, prompting the BSF to retaliate in equal measure. There were no injuries on the Indian side.