Five members of a family, including three children, were killed and two minor daughters wounded on Sunday when Pakistan troops fired mortars deep into the Indian civilian areas near the Line of Control (LoC) in the Balakot sector of Poonch district. Five Indian soldiers, including a JCO, were also injured during the exchange of fire.
Reports said that the deaths of civilians occurred on the spot in the village Devta Sargloon in Mendhar where a mortar fired from Pakistan at about 7.45 am ripped through the roof of the house of Mohammad Ramzan killing him and four other members of his family who were sleeping at that time.
Advertisement
Two injured have been flown in an IAF helicopter to the medical college at Jammu for treatment.
Those killed have been identified as Mohammad Ramzan (35), his wife Malika Bi (32) and children Abdul Rehman (14), Mohammad Rizwan (12) and Razaq Ramzan (7).
Ramzan’s two daughters who were injured have been identified as Naureen Kousar (12) and Mahreen kousar (6) while all other members of the family perished in Pakistani shelling.
The injured soldiers have been identified as Lance Naik Gaurav Vishnak, of 262 Field Regiment, Rifleman Budha Rai of 7/11 Gorkha Rifles, Naik Jitender Verma of 15 Mechanical, Operator Rahul Pandey of 262 Field Regiment and Subedar Deshbandhu also of 262 Field Regiment.The injured have been evacuated to military hospital.
Pakistan troops were targeting civilian areas along the LoC in Poonch and Rajouri districts.
Army spokesman Lt.Colonel Devender Anand said that today’s cease fire violation by Pakistan was very serious in nature as they were targeting innocent civilians in localities deep inside Indian territory, almost 3 to 4 kms from the LoC, where there is no Army deployment. He said the Pakistan troops were using 81 mm and 180 mm