THE ARMY said on Friday that a soldier was killed and his body mutilated by terrorists in an encounter in Machhil sector of Kupwara district, near the Line of Control (LoC), in Jammu and Kashmir on Friday evening.
Stating that a terrorist was also killed in the incident, the Army warned of an “appropriate response”.
“In a despicable act, the terrorists mutilated the body of the Indian Army soldier before fleeing into Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), supported by covering fire from Pakistan Army posts,” said a statement released by the Army’s Northern Command, headquartered in Udhampur.
“This act will invite an appropriate response,” said the statement. The Army said the incident reflected the barbarism that “pervades official and unofficial organisations across the border”.
The incident, which occurred under 53 Infantry Brigade, comes amid increasing border tension between India and Pakistan. Earlier on Friday, the Border Security Force (BSF) said that it had killed 15 Pakistani Rangers in retaliatory fire since the escalation of the situation at the border following the death of BSF constable Gurnam Singh, who was hit in a sniper attack on October 21 and died the next day. Pakistan, however, claimed that none of its personnel had been killed in border firing. A PTI report quoted the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) as saying that the “Indian claims of killing any Pakistani soldier at the working boundary is absolutely baseless and untrue”.
