Jammu, May 23
Soon after the killing of two Indian soldiers by Pakistani soldiers in Poonch and a 19-km incursion into Ladakh by the Chinese, nine suspected Pakistan Army Border Action Team (BAT) men roughed up a group of porters in the Sabjian belt along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district and let them off after snatching supplies meant for the BSF.

The incident happened on May 14, but came to light yesterday. Poonch district SSP Shamsheer Hussain said the incident took place on Zero Line, 2 km ahead of the barbed wire fence, but no FIR has been registered.

“The incident happened near the Zero Line at least 2 km ahead of the barbed fence some eight to ten days ago in Sabjian belt. The porters were carrying supplies to the BSF forward posts. We have not registered an FIR because of their contradictory statements,” he said.

Porters carrying ration and milk cartons to a forward post in Khet area of Sabjian belt that is manned by the BSF were intercepted by nine armed Pakistani Border Action Team troops on the morning of May 14. The troops are said to have snatched the porters’ I-cards and supplies. Of the nine armed men two were in Pakistani Army fatigues and the rest in Pathan suits, a source said.

The Army, which has operational responsibility of the 776-km LoC, remained tightlipped. A senior Army officer from the Northern Command said, “We neither deny nor confirm the incident.

We are trying to confirm from quarters concerned about what happened on May 14.” Northern Command’s PRO Colonel Rajesh Kalia promised to get back with complete information.

A Defence spokesperson in Jammu said the porters had reported the incident to the Army. “The porters reported to the Army that they had seen some persons in Pak Army fatigues and were also roughed up by them, but the Army’s surveillance led to nothing of this sort,” said the spokesperson.

The BSF neither denied nor confirmed the incident. A senior officer said only the Army was authorised to speak on the issue since it has operational responsibility of the LoC.

“The incident took place on May 14 around 8 am. Pakistani troops snatched the porters’ identity cards, rations and milk cartons and beat up two of them. In fact, they had intentions similar to what they did on January 8 in Balnoi (Pak soldiers had killed and mutilated two Indian troopers in Balnoi sector of Poonch), but when they came to know that the porters were locals engaged by Indian security forces they let them off,” a source said.

The eight porters have been identified as Khadim Hussain, Javed Ahmed, Jahangir Hussain, Mohammed Qasim, Showkat Hussain, Altaf Hussain and Nazir Hussain -- all residents of Brari -- and Zahoor Ahmed of Gagriyan. Khadim Hussain and Nazir Hussain were severely beaten up with butts of automatic weapons.