SIALKOT: A soldier of the Punjab Rangers lost his life and three others were seriously injured after Indian Border Security Force (BSF) opened fire on the Punjab Rangers’ Badwaal Post in Charwah Sector, along the Sialkot Working Boundary, on Monday.

According to senior officials of the Punjab Rangers, Muhammad Akhtar, Sardar Hussain, Arshad Hussain and Yasir Khan, who were at the check-post, were injured in the unprovoked attack, and were taken to the Sialkot Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in a critical condition. The soldier who embrac­ed martyrdom was identified as Muhammad Akhtar.

The officials added that dozens of buffaloes, cows and goats, belonging to residents of border villages in Char­wah, Harpal and Bajra Garhi sectors were also killed in mortar shelling by the BSF.

The BSF resumed mortar shelling on the civilian population of border villages in Charwah, Harpal and Bajra Garhi sectors of the Sialkot Working Boundary after a break of two days. The shelling began on Sunday night and continued intermittently all day on Monday.

Heavy mortar shells ripped through dozens of houses and cattle sheds, injuring cattle and damaging buildings in several villages. The Punjab Rangers said that residents of Sialkot border villages had been taken to safe locations in Sialkot city and surrounding areas. Several shells had also landed in fields but did not explode, they said.

They added that the Pun­jab Rangers had respon­ded to the attack in kind, after which the shelling stopped.

Earlier on Friday, six people, including four of a family, were killed by mortar shells fired by the BSF. As many as 22 residents of villages in Charwah, Har­pal, Sucheetgarh, Bajra Garhi, Chaprar and Meer­jakey sectors were injured in the sudden attack.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2018