Indian Army commandos cross LoC, kill three Pakistani soldiers

Srinagar/New Delhi, Dec 26 (IANS) Indian Army commandos crossed the Line of Control and killed three Pakistani soldiers, penetrating around 200-300 meters on the other side of the de facto border, two days after four Indian soldiers, including a Major, were targeted and killed by Pakistan in cross border firing.

Sources said it was a "local tactical level action", and it was a short distance raid.

The sources, however, didn't term the action a surgical strike -- like the one conducted on September 29, 2016, when Indian army commandos crossed the Line of Control to target terror launch pads inside Pakistan-controlled territory.

The source called it a "tit-for-tat" action to avenge the killing of the Indian soldiers. Four to five Ghatak Commandos were involved in the action. Ghatak Commandos are special operations capable infantry platoon.

The post targeted was of 59 Baloch regiment of the Pakistan Army, and at least three Pakistan soldiers were killed while one was injured. The source added that as per intelligence inputs, there can be three more casualties on Pakistan's side.

The incident took place along the Naushera sector of Rajouri district, and the Pakistan post targeted was in Rukh Chakri sector of Rawalkot.

The sources said it was a "tactical" operation conducted at 6 p.m. on Monday after the Pakistan military men tried to cross over apparently to plant IEDs on the Indian side of the border.

Since the 2016 Surgical Strike, this is the first incident of Indian soldiers crossing the Line of Control, though sources said from time to time Indian troops do cross the border while undertaking operations.

Pakistan Army confirmed the death of three soldiers in an "unprovoked heavy cross-border shelling by Indian forces" at Rukh Chakri sector in Rawlakot.

The incident took place two days after four Indian soldiers, who were part of a patrol party, were killed by Pakistan troops in heavy cross-border firing along the LoC in the Rajouri sector.

On Sunday, two Pakistani snipers, who were trying to target Indian soldiers on the LoC, were killed in Indian firing on the LoC in Poonch and Rajouri districts.

The Monday deaths take the Pakistani casualty toll to five in two days.

The Indian Army claimed to have killed dozens of terrorists and their sympathisers in Pakistan-administered Kashmir in the covert operation that came nearly 10 days after a terror attack on a military base at Uri near the LoC that killed 19 soldiers on September 18 last year.

(This story has not been edited by Social News XYZ staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)