According to ISPR, Pakistani troops befittingly responded to Indian unprovoked firing on LoC in Bhimber, Kel, and Lipa sectors.

Exchange of fire which started at 2.30am hrs after midnight continued till 8am.

Two Pakistani soldiers embraced martyrdom in the cross-border fire.

Bilateral ties between Pakistan and India have turned hostile ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led Indian government blamed Pakistan for the attack on their military base at Uri sector of Indian held Kashmir, without a proper inquiry into the incident.

Over 17 Indian soldiers were killed in Uri military base attack.

Pakistan highlighted the atrocities committed by Indian forces in the occupied Kashmir territory at the recent United Nations General Assembly session. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif stressed the world body for resolution of the Kashmir dispute according to the UN resolutions.

India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, on the other hand, in her address in the UN session rejected the UN resolutions claiming Kashmir as an “integral part” of her country.

In August 2015, the relations between the neighbouring countries turned hostile when cross-border firing claimed over 10 lives.

On the Pakistani side of the frontier, six civilians were killed and more than 40 were treated for wounds in hospital in the town of Sialkot, the ISPR said in a statement then.

Border ceasefire

In September 2015, the heads of India’s Border Security Force and the Pakistani Rangers met in New Delhi to find ways to de-escalate tensions along the border as part of a series of measures agreed by the leaders of the two countries in July.

The border chiefs agreed to hold back cross-border firing and not to retaliate immediately to violations of a 15-year ceasefire, an Indian interior ministry official said.

“Both have decided not to immediately retaliate against firing from either side and to contact the other side to know the cause of firing,” the official said, reading from a draft text the two governments agreed.

Tens of thousands of soldiers are massed on either side of Kashmir, one of the world’s most militarized regions, and in recent months they have stepped up cross-border firing.