NEW DELHI, April 30. /TASS/. The Pakistani military violated ceasefire agreements along the international border with India, India’s ANI news agency reported, citing defense sources.
"Till yesterday morning, the Pakistan Army was violating the ceasefire only along the Line of Control but now, they have escalated the situation and violated the ceasefire along the international borders by firing along the International Border in Jammu’s Paragwal sector last night," the sources said.
The Paragwal sector is located in the Jammu District of India’s Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir south of the Line of Control, along the internationally recognized border between India and Pakistan.
The Indian army stated earlier that during the night of April 29-30, the Pakistani military "initiated unprovoked small-arms fire across the Line of Control opposite the Naushera, Sunderbani and Akhnoor sectors in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir." Indian troops "responded swiftly and proportionately."
Reports of ceasefire violations along the India-Pakistan border have been coming in for a week amid tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad caused by a deadly terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir.
On April 22, armed men killed 25 Indians and one Nepalese national and wounded many more with machine gun fire in the popular tourist town of Pahalgam in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. According to media reports, Indian intelligence agencies allegedly found evidence that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was involved in the terrorist attack committed by the Lashkar-e-Taiba group (outlawed in Russia). After the attack, India almost halved its embassy staff in Pakistan, suspended an agreement with Islamabad on the allocation of water resources, declared the military advisors of the Pakistani diplomatic mission in India personae non gratae, and also suspended the issuance of visas to Pakistani citizens.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a high-level security meeting on Tuesday. According to sources, he stated that the Indian armed forces had "complete operational freedom to decide on the mode, targets and timing" of the country’s response to the Pahalgam attack. Pakistani Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar, in turn, said that India planned "to carry out military action" against Pakistan within the next 24 to 36 hours.