Kargil Remains Untouched as Pak Continues Firing Along LoC

The 170-km mountain frontier in Ladakh's Kargil sector is the only stretch of the Line of Control (LoC) untouched by the Pakistan Army's spate of provocations in the aftermath of the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, even as the neighboring army on Friday opened machine-gun fire on scores of tightly-held Indian positions in several forward areas in Jammu and Kashmir that it has brazenly targeted for more than a week, officials aware of the matter said.

- Rahul Singh

SRINAGAR:

The latest round of overnight ceasefire violations, a deliberate attempt to step up hostilities along the LoC in J&K, took place in sectors including Kupwara, Baramulla, Poonch, Naushera and Akhnoor; the development coming at a critical time when tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors are at their highest since the 2019 Pulwama terror strike, the officials said.

The Indian Army's counterfire was measured but effective on the eighth straight day of ceasefire violations.

The de-facto border in the Kargil sector is calm as the Pakistan Army cannot push in terrorist infiltrators because not only will it involve passing through some of the region's most inhospitable terrain but also there no reception areas to plan further movement into J&K, said one of the officials, who asked not to be named.

"Ceasefire violations are mostly aimed at supporting infiltration attempts. The neighboring army's playbook doesn't work in the Kargil sector," he said. Stray ceasefire violations were last recorded there more than a decade ago, said a second official.