SIALKOT: Unprovoked shelling and indiscriminate firing by Indian troops from across the border have caused the suspension of harvesting of paddy and other crops in villages along the Sialkot Working Boundary, residents of the affected areas told a team of foreign and local journalists on Thursday.

The people living in areas along Bajwat, Chaprar, Suchitgarh and Shakargarh sectors said the shelling and firing had intensified in recent days.

Officials of Chenab Rangers told the journalists that the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) had fired more than 4000 mortar shells and heavy bullets over the past eight days in villages near the Sialkot border, causing losses of human lives. They said several mortar shells fired by the BSF also landed in fields, but luckily these did not explode.

The Rangers retaliated in a befitting manner and silenced the Indian guns.

The villagers said they were facing immense problems because of the Indian shelling and firing. The media personnel also saw the houses and other buildings badly riddled by the shelling.