The General Officer Commanding-in Chief of the Army’s Northern Command, Lt. General K.T. Parnaik, on Wednesday briefed Jammu and Kashmir Governor N.N. Vohra for about an hour on Tuesday’s incursion by a contingent of Pakistani Army commandos.
Sources said Gen. Parnaik, who visited the forward area in Mendhar, Poonch, told the Governor that the weapons of the two slain soldiers and the severed head of one of them were still missing. The GOC-in-C informed Mr. Vohra that the wreath-laying ceremony took place at a military base in Rajouri and the soldiers’ bodies were being flown to their residences.
Gen. Parnaik is understood to have told the Governor that the Defence authorities were conducting a detailed investigation into how the Pakistani soldiers intruded into India and ambushed the patrol of the Rajputana Rifles.
The sources said senior officials attended a high-level meeting at the headquarters of the 25 Division in Rajouri, mainly to discuss an investigation into how the Pakistani troops intruded and went back without suffering damage.
Defence sources in Jammu and Srinagar told The Hindu that the BSF as well as the Army had been put on alert.
Fence well inside India
PTI reports from Rajouri/New Delhi:
Deputy Commander of the 25 Division Brigadier J.K. Tiwari told journalists in Rajouri that eight soldiers belonging to the 13 Rajputana Rifles were carrying out Area Domination Patrolling in two escort parties about 600 metres inside the LoC.
Army officials said the fence on the LoC in that particular area in Krishna Ghati was built 2 km inside Indian territory and the Pakistani troops did not have to cross the obstacle to enter Indian territory.
Brigadier Tiwari said the men, wearing black clothes, suspected to be from the Pakistani Special Forces, took advantage of the thick fog and dense forests and laid an ambush. They attacked the patrol party and the firefight went on for 30 minutes.
There were also reports that the Pakistani troops belonged to the 29 Baloch Regiment.
“After the firing stopped, the patrol parties came across the two dead jawans in a mutilated condition,” he said.
The Mendhar area has been the hub of ceasefire violations and cross-border firings in the last one year, with close to 90 such incidents.
The area is known as the Barasingha Battalion area and is under the overall command of the 10 brigade of the Indian Army.
