Pakistan intensifies shelling along J&K; 2 people killed in fresh firing in Samba

Two people have been killed in fresh firing in Samba along the international border, marking the first time that casualties have been recorded in this region. This takes the death toll since an escalation of violence began, to seven. The BSF is reportedly retaliating strongly, and the DG BSF, asked people to stay inside their homes. India has been told not to seek any flag meeting as of yet, reports said. CNN-IBN said that the government is waiting for Pakistan to make the first move. [caption id=“attachment_1744121” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Shahid Tantray/Firstpost[/caption] “We have been retaliating very strongly. People have been adviced to remain inside their houses,” DG BSF DK Pathak told CNN-IBN. The International Border with Pakistan is tense as firing continued in 7 sectors of Jammu and Kashmir - Hira nagar, Sambha, Arnia, RS Pura, Kanachak, Pargwal and Ramgarh. As many as 50 Border Security Force (BSF) posts were targetted in the shelling that continued till 9 am on Wednesday morning. In view of the ceasefire violations, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley held a meeting with the chiefs of the Indian Army, Navy and the Air Force on Tuesday. Toughening its stand on the border situation, India has put on hold the flag meeting with the Pakistan Army, and has decided to wait for Islamabad to make the first move. A high level meeting of the MHA has been called to discuss what to do next. India has maintained that it will give a fitting reply if Pakistan didn’t stop the firing. “We want to secure our borders. Pakistan had started action on the border. We have told Pakistan to stop ceasefire violation or else India will give a fitting reply. Pakistan should understand this,” Home Minister Rajnath Singh said. The three service chiefs met Defence Minister Arun Jaitley in Delhi and are understood to have discussed the prevailing security situation on the border. “There is no question of a flag meet with Pakistan”, Army Chief General Suhag said in comments to the media. India’s response to the ceasefire violations is reportedly being monitored at the highest level with the NSA Ajit Doval seeking hourly reports from the ground. Even Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, who was recently discharged from AIIMS, is monitoring the situation along the border. “If we hit them hard, they will come to the negotiating table themselves. We are not going to sit back and suffer for the sake of talks,” a BSF official told The Times of India. Pakistan for its part, has blamed India for the violations. “The government of Nawaz Sharif has been exercising utmost restraint and responsibility. We call upon the Indian government to immediately cease fire and shelling. It is sad that the Indian government has not been able to restrain its forces despite strong diplomatic protest by Pakistan,” Sartaj Aziz, Advisor to the Pakistan Prime Minister, said. Pakistan’s night-long mortar-bomb attacks and rattle of heavy guns have sent thousands of residents in border villages scurrying for cover. They fled their mud-houses on buses, tractor-trollies and bullock-carts to safer places in Jammu leaving behind deserted hamlets. With inputs from PTI