JAMMU/NEW DELHI: The Army on Friday returned the body of a Pakistani soldier, who was killed after he had intruded into Indian territory near Laam post along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu & Kashmir's Rajouri district a day earlier.
This comes a month after the beheading of an Indian soldier following a cross-LoC raid plunged relations between the two countries into their worst crisis since 2008. The beheading followed clashes elsewhere along the de facto border between the two countries and killings on both sides.
In New Delhi, a defence spokesman said the body was handed back along the same sector after Pakistan Director General Military Operations made an unscheduled call to his Indian counterpart requesting the body be returned.
He said two Indian jawans were wounded after the infiltrator fired on them after a patrol asked him to surrender. "In the ensuing encounter the infiltrator was killed and one AK-56 rifle along with some other warlike stores recovered. The body of the deceased was later handed over to the J&K Police...,'' he said.
Sources in Jammu identified the soldier as Mohammad Ikhlaq of Pakistan's army's 60 Punjab and said the Pakistani side maintained that he had inadvertently crossed over.
A police officer pleading anonymity said confusion prevailed over the situation till Friday morning when SDM Nowshera in Rajouri was asked to get the intruder's autopsy done.
Rajouri SP Mubassiar Lattifi said a team comprising 5 Sikh LI commander and Nowshera ASP handed over the body to the Pakistani side at Laam sector.
The spokesman added that Pakistan troops had violated the ceasefire along the LoC and resorted to heavy unprovoked automatic fire on Indian posts in Mendhar sector on Thursday.
India returns Pakistan soldier's body
This article
India returns Pakistan soldier's body
can be opened in url
http://newspseudoscopic.blogspot.com/2013/02/india-returns-pakistan-soldier-body.html
India returns Pakistan soldier's body
