We will retaliate if Pakistanis fire: BSF

The Border Security Force (BSF) will retaliate without fail if its troops are fired at by Pakistani forces, BSF Director General DK Pathak said here Tuesday.

"Prevalence of peace (is the) best situation. But if Pakistan does not want peace, if firing comes from their side, we will definitely respond," he told the media.

Pathak is visiting the border areas in Jammu and Kashmir after a BSF trooper was killed and a woman critically injured Monday in shelling by Pakistan in Samba district.

"We cannot go on taking bullets," Pathak added, after paying tributes to the trooper.

Pathak said the BSF never targeted civilian areas. "But they always fire first and target our civilian areas."

There has been intermittent firing on the international border in Jammu and Kashmir for some two months, forcing thousands of villagers to abandon their homes and shift to makeshift camps.