Hours after Pakistan's Director General of Military Operations’ assertion of his country’s non-violation of the November 2003 ceasefire and other hostile activities across the LoC, an 82-mm mortar terminated the life of an Indian Lance Naik in Poonch district.
Mohammad Firoz Khan, 31, died on spot when the mortar fell close to Tekri post of Bhimbar Gali, in Mendhar, where two Indian soldiers had been killed in the current year's first major offensive in January. At 5:30 p.m, an hour before his wife and two young children would have delivered their Eid Mubarak to him, Lance Naik Khan lost his life for the country.
On Wednesday, scores would throng Khan's residence in Char Minar but not to celebrate the much awaited Eid-ul-Azha. They would instead perform the young soldier's funeral and console his family.
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The Arafa, a day before the Eid, witnessed intermittent firing from morning till late in the evening on the LoC in Poonch district. It began at 6:30 a.m, except for a minor break in the afternoon.