At least five soldiers of Pakistan Army were killed and six others were injured in firing by Indian Army along the Line of Control (LoC) on Thursday, June 1. Indian Army was retaliating to ceasefire violations from the Pakistani side in the Battal sector of the Udhampur district of Jammu and Kashmir.
Indian Army had already neutralised two terrorists in the Baramullah district of J&K earlier in the day. The two militants, identified as Aijaz Ahmad Mir of Brath Kalan and Basharat Ahmad Sheikh of Bomai Sopore, were said to be behind the grenade attack on a police station in Sopore on Wednesday in which four policemen had been injured.
Thursday's firing was followed by Pakistan summoning Indian Deputy High Commissioner JP Singh over the incident. After all, this is the second big reply Indian has given to Pakistan within a month for its continued ceasefire violations. In the previous instance, it had destroyed several Pakistani Army posts in what it said were "punitive attacks."
The news of Thursday's attack also came just hours after Arun Jaitley, who currently holds the Defence portfolio, told reporters: "I don't want to get in to the strategic details, but in past few weeks our armed forces are dominating the LoC."
He also blamed Pakistan for continued failure to get to the dialogue phase on the Kashmir issue. "Steps that were intended to ease tension were responded to with a Pathankot or an Uri. The environment that must exist for talks have been prevented by Pakistan," he said, mentioning two terrorist attacks in which infiltrators from Pakistan have targeted bases of the Indian armed forces.
