Heavy Pak shelling on Indian border villages

Indian villages and parts of Kargil town in Ladakh region came under heavy shelling from Pakistani troops on Wednesday, damaging some houses and forcing people to shift to safer areas, said Jammu and Kashmir Minister of State for Home Ali Mohammed Sagar. Defence sources described it as "routine firing".

Making a suo motu statement in both houses of the state legislature, Sagar said parts of Kargil town and the villages of Akchamal, Poyan, Botli Bazar and Shili came under heavy shelling from across the border. There were no casualties but the Kurgil helipad was been damaged and some houses had developed cracks.

The sources said Pakistanis used machine guns and mortars. A few shells landed on Kargil helipad, damaging it but it was made operational later. The general officer commanding, Leh, rushed to the Kargil to take stock of the situation. Sagar said the Kargil helipad was now safe.

Saying this was "routine firing", defence sources said this time some shells had landed farther, on the outskirts of the two villages of Baru and Pratavganj, causing panic.

The sources said the firing was still on when last reports came in. They confirmed some people have been shifted to safer areas, but their exact number was not known.

More than a 100,000 acres of fertile land of border villages had fallen fallow in the Samba and R S Pura sectors along the international borders because of the firing by Pakistani troops, sources said.

Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah had also recently hinted that Pakistani firing was affecting work on the border fence and that government may have to change the alignment of the fencing area to avoid it.

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