Srinagar, July 30
Just a day after the Army held a flag meeting with the Pakistani counterpart to lodge their protest over the intrusion of Pak soldiers in Nowgam sector in Kupwara on July 28, the Pakistan Army fired six mortar shells on an Indian post in the same sector today.

An Army spokesperson told The Tribune that this was the first time that the Pak army has used infantry mortar shells to target an Indian post at the Line of Control since the 2003 ceasefire.

The shells caused no damage. The first attack (three shells) took place at 11.42 am and another burst of three shells fired from a heavier mortar came at 12.39 pm.

“We then asked the Pakistani army officials through hotline to stop firing immediately. We said we are not retaliating lest the situation deteriorate,” he said. There was no firing after that, he added.

Defence minister A.K. Antony yesterday asked Pakistan to respect the ceasefire agreement. Though the reasons behind the today’s violation were not clear, but official sources said it could be out of desperation, as the Pakistani army was believed to have lost at least four of its personnel in retaliatory firing by the Indian troops on July 28.

They had, though, officially denied any intrusion by their troops and refuted reports of any casualty on their side.

“We had intercepted their messages regarding the death of their soldiers. So there is little doubt about it,” an Indian Army official said.

Between 10 to 12 Pak soldiers had crossed into the Indian side and objected to an Indian bunker position. They later fired at it, killing a jawan and at least four of their soldiers were killed in retaliatory fire by the Indian side.

India had said it was the biggest violation of ceasefire by the Pak army till date.

There have been 19 cases of ceasefire violation by the Pakistan army in this year out of which seven occurred this month.

n Edit: Now intrusions