Fayaz Wani By

Express News Service

SRI NAGAR: A day after four soldiers, including a Major, were killed in Pakistani firing in the border district of Rajouri in Jammu and Kashmir, the Army on Sunday ruled out that the casualties were the result of an attack by Pakistan army’s notorious Border Action Team (BAT) and asserted there was no mutilation of bodies.

“Yesterday’s incident at Rajouri was not a BAT attack by Pakistan army commandos and highly trained militants but a ceasefire violation and cross-border firing by the Pakistani troops along the LoC,” a senior army official said.

He said Pakistani troops breached the border ceasefire along the LoC in Keri Battalion area of Rajouri on Saturday afternoon and fired indiscriminately on an army patrol close to the LoC. “The Pakistani troops also fired mortar shells”.

Four army men identified as Major Moharkar Prafulla Ambadas, Lance Naik Gurmail Singh, Sepoy Pargat Singh and Lance Naik Kuldeep Singh were killed and another soldier injured in the Pakistani troops’ firing, the official said.

The defence spokesman based in Udhampur, Colonel N N Joshi, said the incident was the result of a ceasefire violation by Pakistani troops. He said there was no mutilation of bodies of the slain soldiers.

“The injuries suffered by soldiers were due to splinters and gunshot wounds sustained by them in firing by the enemy on the patrol,” Joshi said.

He said the army men had retaliated strongly and effectively to the ceasefire violation by Pakistani troops. The Pakistan army’s notorious BAT teams have conducted many cross-LoC raids in the past and killed and mutilated bodies of Indian soldiers.

Meanwhile, Indian and Pakistani troops exchanged heavy gunfire and mortar shelling along the LoC in Poonch district on Sunday. Pakistani troops breached the border ceasefire at around 1.30 pm in Poonch sector and fired from automatic weapons and resorted to mortar shelling on army posts.

They said the Indian army effectively returned the fire with weapons of similar caliber.