Pakistan Rangers 'pleaded' for ceasefire after trooper's death in retaliatory attack across LoC, says BSF

The Border Security Force (BSF) said Pakistani Rangers called them up to plead for a ceasefire after a heavy artillery attack left a trooper dead across the border, according to several media reports. The BSF was targeting a Pakistani bunker in retaliation to several ceasefire violations. [caption id=“attachment_4360685” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] According to a report  News18, the BSF released a 19-second clip of thermal imagery showing a rocket flying towards its target: A Pakistani bunker. “If they are targeting us, they are getting an appropriate reply. We were expecting such an incident because the harvesting season is over and once the harvesting season gets over, they always do such mischief”, BSF Inspector General Ram Awtar said on Friday, reported NDTV. The BSF fired the rocket at the target in the highly strategic “Chicken Neck” area — surrounded on three sides by Pakistani forces — in Akhnoor, some 30 kilometres from Jammu, according to the report. As per a report in  The Eonomic Times, Pakistani forces had been shelling Indian positions with heavy mortars before India responded to the threat. On Friday, a BSF jawan was killed and another was injured in Pakistani firing in Jammu’s Arnia sector. Sitaram Upadhyay, 28, who joined the Border Security Force in 2011, was killed in the firing and another BSF jawan, Devender Singh, was killed in Pakistani firing on 15 May, according to the report. The incidents of violence had reported an increase in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the state on Saturday amid heightened security. Separatist leaders had also asked Modi to hold open talks with him in the Valley over the Kashmir issue. But Modi was clear in his message to the youth of Kashmir when he said that “every stone picked by misguided youths destabilises Valley”, encouraging them to join in the development and progress of mainstream India.

 With inputs from agencies