Couple killed, three daughters injured in Pakistan shelling in Kashmir's Poonch district

An Army jawan and his wife were killed and their three daughters injured when the Pakistani Army targeted forward posts and hamlets along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, police said today.

The Pakistan Army violated the ceasefire and initiated indiscriminate firing from small arms, automatic weapons and mortars from 6.30 am today on Indian Army posts along the LoC, a defence spokesperson added.

Indian troops returned the fire strongly and effectively, he said.

Sepoy Mohmmad Shaukat of the Territorial Army, who was on leave, and his wife Safia Bi were killed when a mortar shell fired by the Pakistan Army exploded near their home in Karmara, a police officer said.

The couple's three daughters, Zaida Kouser (6), Robina Kouser (12) and Nazia Bi, and another person were injured.

Pakistani troops rained mortar bomb shells and resorted to heavy firing, targeting civilian villages.

"Very heavy shelling is going on in areas like Khadi, Karmara and Guplur," he said.

The Pakistan Army is firing and shelling heavily from eight different posts on villages and forward posts along the LoC. They have fired at five to six hamlets, the officer said.

There have been 23 incidents of ceasefire violations, one BAT (Border Action Team) attack and two infiltration bids by Pakistan in June in which four people, including three jawans, have been killed and 12 injured.

On June 29, two Indian Army jawans were injured when Pakistani troops fired at forward posts and  civilian areas along the LoC in Poonch.

Three days earlier, on June 26, the occasion of Eid-ul Fitr, the Pakistani Army fired small arms and automatic weapons and shelled mortars along the LoC in Bhimbher Gali sector of Rajouri.

On June 22, in the third such attack this year, a team of  Pakistani special forces sneaked 600 metres across the LoC into the Poonch sector and killed two Indian jawans and lost one BAT member in retaliatory action.

In the firefight, two Indian soldiers -- 34-year-old Naik Jadhav Sandip of Aurangabad and 24-year-old Sepoy Mane Savan Balku of  Kolhapur - were killed.