Another Gurdwara Damaged In Pakistan's Cross-Border Shelling In J&K, Backing Foreign Secretary's Claim Of Targeted Religious Sites

Another gurdwara was hit due to Pakistan's cross-border firing in a border village of Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) in post-midnight shelling on Friday (9 May).

Unprovoked firing using mortars and heavy calibre artillery by Pakistan damaged the boundary wall of a gurudwara named Dera Sant Pura Nangali Sahib, ANI reported.

However, a local was quoted as saying, "At around 1 am, there was a lot of shelling here. There was no damage to the Gurdwara sahib and the medical dispensary here but lots of houses and cars suffered damage."

A gurdwara was earlier damaged in Pakistan's firing on Wednesday evening in the Poonch district. "A shell hit one corner of our Gurudwara Shri Guru Singh Sabha, because of which one door and a few glasses were shattered," President of Poonch Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee said.

He claimed that the attack on the gurdwara took the lives of several members of the Sikh community and injured them. The Foreign Secretary had said that Pakistan's action had killed 16 civilians and injured 59 others.

Misri also countered the false claim that India targeted religious sites in its airstrikes and said, "Targets were terrorist infrastructure and facilities. Pakistan was misusing religious sites to radicalise, indoctrinate and direct terrorists."

The tensions have been on the rise since the 22 April Pahalgam attack but escalated after India conducted airstrikes under Operation Sindoor. Since then, Pakistan has been indulged in several misadventures but was countered by India.