A soldier was killed in Kashmir’s Rajouri Sunderbani sector on Tuesday after Pakistani troops violated ceasefire and fired shell mortar across the Line of Control (LoC). The deceased soldier has been identified as Aneesh Thomas, who hails from Anchal in Kerala’s Kollam district. According to reports, two more officers were injured in the firing.
Aneesh was set to return to Kerala on September 25 for a month-long break.
According to reports, it was on Tuesday afternoon that shelling started from the Pakistan side of the border, targeting Indian posts. According to a press release, one Army Major and a few jawans were injured in the attack. The Indian Army also retaliated to the Pakistani shelling, in which the Pakistani side too reportedly suffered casualties in the firing, according to reports.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan took to social media to express his condolences to Aneesh’s family.
“The demise of Aneesh Thomas, a native of Kollam Alumukku, who died in Rajouri, Kashmir is painful. I partake in the grief of his family members,” Pinarayi wrote on his official Facebook page.
This year, more than 3,000 ceasefire violations have been reported in the LoC, the highest in several years.
Apart from the LoC, India has been facing sustained border clashes with its other neighbour, China. In a recent meeting between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Moscow, the two countries agreed on a five-point plan to resolve the border face-off, which includes complying with all existing agreements and protocols on managing the frontier, maintaining peace and avoiding escalation.
The Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) are seeing a tense standoff in several areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh since early May.
In a joint press statement, both S Jaishankar and Wang Yi agreed that both countries should look at the consensus reached upon by the leaders of both countries for developing bilateral relations, which includes stopping differences from turning into disputes.