New Delhi: India said Pakistani forces violated a cease-fire agreement along the Line of Control in Kashmir, and accused its neighbor of failing to take credible action against terror groups.
There was shelling with mortars and the firing of small arms by Pakistan in the early hours of Sunday, and India “retaliated befittingly,” according to an Indian defense official. The Indian army separately said it brought down a drone on Saturday in Ganganagar in the state of Rajasthan, a city near its border with Pakistan.
Tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors escalated in recent weeks after a Pakistani-based militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammed, claimed responsibility for a 14 February suicide bombing that killed 40 troops in an Indian-administered portion of Kashmir. India later bombed targets inside Pakistan, saying it hit a terrorist training camp blamed for the attack. A further clash led to the capture of an Indian pilot by Pakistan, who was subsequently released.
Pakistan hasn’t taken proper action against terror groups operating from its soil and remains in a state of denial, India’s ministry of external affairs spokesman Raveesh Kumar said on Saturday.
The presence of terrorist camps in Pakistan is public knowledge, Kumar said. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday reiterated that terrorist groups will not be allowed to operate from the country. – Bloomberg