Govt. needs to deal aggressively with Pak: Defence Experts

A day after Pakistani troops killed two Indian soldiers and mutilated their bodies near the Line of Control (LoC) in the Pir Panchal Valley's Poonch district, Defence Experts on Tuesday said the Indian Government needs to act aggressively, adding such incidences will lower the morale of the soldiers.

"We must not say that our policy is that once we are attacked we will retaliate. That is what is happening. Our soldiers' morale is decreasing. We have to be extremely aggressive," Defence Expert Praful Bakshi told ANI.

He further said that India must declare that Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) is ours.

"We should have the courage of conviction to stand by it and start the action accordingly. We know from where these terrorists are coming, so start action on that," he added.

Bakshi asserted that Pakistan has the guts to do such acts because India is not taking proper actions.

"They are giving instructions to their soldiers and getting their job done. This is absolutely not acceptable," he added.

Meanwhile, another Defence Expert Ranjeet Rai said Pakistan has got the guts to implement such plans because in their democracy nobody will be taken to task.

"In the last six months this is the second time when mutilation of soldiers has taken place. It is most 'unarmy' like. However, Pakistan is in a desperate state. India is not willing to talk to them," he added.

The Pakistani soldiers along with their Border Action Team (BAT), which include trained border inhabitants, launched a joint attack yesterday.

They first fired rockets and followed this up with firing from automatic weapons, near Kranti Post located in Poonch's Krishna Ghati Sector around 8.30 a.m.

The Pakistanis then crossed the LoC, entered 200 meters into Indian Territory, and attacked a joint patrol of the Army and Border Security Force (BSF), heading towards a nearby post.

Defence Minister Arun Jaitley termed the mutilation a "reprehensible and an inhuman act" and said such acts don't even take place "during war let alone peace."

The attack triggered a major exchange of fire on the LoC and Indian troops resorted to small arms fire and mortar shelling, said an Army official.

The deceased personnel were identified as Border Security Force (BSF) head constable Prem Sagar of the 200 Battalion and the Army's Naik Subedar Paramjit Singh of 22 Sikh Regiment. Another BSF jawan was also injured.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Army denied the alleged ceasefire violation or the mutilation of bodies.

"Pakistan Army did not commit any ceasefire violation on LoC as alleged by India. The Indian blame of mutilating Indian soldiers is also false," M. Nafees Zakaria, spokesperson of Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted.

The fresh attack from Pakistan comes just a day after its chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa visited the LoC in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir where he pledged support "to the rightful political struggle of Kashmiris.