Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has stated that the armed forces are ‘proportionately’ retaliating to Pakistani actions along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir and effectively containing cross border infiltration as well adding that there was ‘no rethinking as of now’ on the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) which gives the security forces special rights and immunity for carrying out various operations in disturbed areas.
She asserted that security forces are ‘eliminating’ the infiltrators at the LoC before they try to sneak into the Indian side before adding that it would be not right to say that no one manages to infiltrate.
The LoC has remained volatile since last year and according to official figures, 860 incidents of ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops were reported in 2017 as against 221 the year before.
Recently it had been reported that six Army personnel and a civilian were killed in an attack on the Sunjuwan military station in Jammu on February 10. Four Army men were killed in Pakistani firing in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir just days before that as well.
