Ceasefire violations by Pakistan along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) were the highest in October among the first ten months of the calendar year 2019, Army officials said on Monday (11 November).

Officials also added that in the first 11 days of November, as many as 97 Pakistan-initiated ceasefire violations have already been reported.

As per data compiled by the Army, there were 351 Pakistan-initiated ceasefire violations along the LoC in various sectors of J&K in October. The only other month in which ceasefire violations had crossed the 300-figure mark was August, the month in which the Parliament withdrew special status to J&K by reading down Article 370 of the Constitution. The number of incidents had been recorded at 307 in August.

"Ceasefire violations have gone up several folds after 5 August when Article 370 was abrogated. This is indicative of the fact that Pakistan has been trying to push in infiltrators through the LoC under covering fire. Several infiltration attempts have been thwarted though retaliatory firing by Indian troops," an Army official said.

On the intervening night of 8-9 November, around half-a-dozen intruders opened fire at Army troops at a forward location in the Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch district in J&K even as Pakistani troops resorted to firing of small arms and mortars.

One Indian soldier was martyred in the firing by the infiltrators, who however, had to beat a hasty retreat owing to strong retaliatory measures by India.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)