An army soldier was killed as troops foiled yet another bid by terrorists to infiltrate under the cover of firing from Pakistani side along Line of Control [Images] in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir [Images], a senior army official said in Jammu on Thursday.

This is the fourth infiltration bid in past 12 days and sixth in the last three weeks along the Indo-Pak border in J-K.

A group of unidentified terrorists entered Indian territory under the cover of cross-border firing along LoC in Keri sub-sector of Rajouri district late Wednesday night, he said.

There was firing on a patrolling party on the Indian side near Khalsa post in Keri belt along LoC when troops detected some movement and challenged them.

The unidentified terrorists opened fired on the troops, who replied back resulting in gun battle, he said, adding that the terrorists later escaped back to Pakistani side after brief fire fight.

However, in the gun battle, one soldier was killed, he said, adding that there were no reports about the loss on the other side.

The deceased soldier was identified as Sepoy Amarjeet Singh of Sangrore district of Punjab. Singh belonged to 2 Sikh Unit. There is an increase in infiltration attempts from across the border. But alert troops have beaten back these attempts. This shows desperation in terrorist leadership of Pakistan to send in more armed terrorists in view of coming assembly elections, he said.

Border Security Force on October 3 had foiled an infiltration bid under cover of fire from the Pakistan side and killed an infiltrator along Indo-Pak border in Kunara Tana Khurd area of Jammu district.

Troops foiled an infiltration bid on October 1 along International Border in Kanachak sub-sector of Jammu district as Pakistani rangers opened fire at Tent Post to push a group of terrorists into J-K.

Similarly an attempt by Pakistani troops on September 27 to infiltrate into India along IB via Chak Fagwari area in Pargwal belt on Jammu was foiled by BSF.

On September 22, security forces foiled another infiltration bid and killed four terrorists when Pakistani troops violated ceasefire and opened small arms firing on Indian posts along LoC in Tarkundi forward areas in Poonch district.

On September 18, there was firing from Pakistan across LoC on forward posts of Panjal and Kopra of Poonch district.
Since January this year, Pakistani troops have violated five-year-old ceasefire agreement 35 times and Indian troops have refused to retaliate on many occasions.

Army and BSF have beefed up security along LoC and IB in J&K after intelligence inputs reported presence of several big groups of ultras waiting to enter J&K.

Pakistani breaches of ceasefire and infiltrations bids were reported from Jammu, Samba, Rajouri, Uri, Tanghdhar and Poonch sectors this year, from where a number of terrorists were trying to infiltrate into India.

Over 127 infiltration bids were reported in nine months from Pakistan, in which over 70 terrorists were killed.