Forces responding effectively to Pak ceasefire violations: Jaitley

Noting that ceasefire violations by Pakistan have increased, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said Indian security forces are responding effectively to protect the country's interests.

"This is a fact that of late, these ceasefire violations by Pakistan have increased. But let everybody be assured that both our army and the Border Security Force, who are respectively guarding the Line of Control and the International Border, are fully vigilant.

"They effectively respond to each violation and I have full faith and the country must have full faith that they are effectively protecting both our territory and national interest," the defence minister told mediapersons in Vishakhapatnam.

His comments come on a day when Pakistani troops indulged in heavy "unprovoked" shelling and firing on 22 border outposts and 13 villages, killing two civilians and injuring six others including a BSF jawan along the International Border in Jammu sector. The minister was replying to queries about repeated ceasefire violations by Pakistan along the LoC and the International Border on the sidelines of a function to commission the ant-submarine warfare corvette INS Kamorta into the navy.

The heavy firing and shelling by Pakistan on Saturday comes a day after the discovery of a possible cross-border tunnel from PoK along LoC in Chalka post in Pallanwala sector of Jammu district.

There have been 16 ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops in nearly a fortnight and 18 this month.