India lodges strong protest with Pak over killing of 3 soldiers

India Tuesday summoned a senior official of the Pakistan High Commission here and lodged a strong protest over the killing of three of its soldiers during an infiltration bid by Pakistani terrorists in the Sunderbani sector of Jammu and Kashmir two days ago.

In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the provocative action by Pakistan revealed Islamabad's complicity in aiding and abetting terrorism and exposed the hollowness of its deceitful claims of promoting a constructive engagement with India.

"A senior official in the High Commission for Pakistan in New Delhi was summoned to the MEA and a demarche was made lodging strong protest at the fatal casualties of Indian soldiers during an attempted cross border infiltration on October 21 by Pakistani terrorists in Sunderbani Sector," the MEA said.

Two heavily-armed Pakistani "intruders" and three Indian soldiers were killed in a gunfight Sunday after the Army foiled the infiltration bid along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Sunderbani sector.

"The Ministry condemned in the strongest terms such provocative action by Pakistan, which reveals their complicity in aiding and abetting terrorism and exposes the hollowness of Pakistan's deceitful claims to promote constructive engagement and desire for peace," it said.

India also conveyed to the Pakistani side Tuesday its grave concern over the continuing incidents of unprovoked ceasefire violations by the Pakistani forces along the LoC and the International Border (IB).

"Despite repeated calls for restraint and adherence to the ceasefire understanding of 2003 for maintaining peace and tranquillity, Pakistan forces have carried out 1,591 incidents of unprovoked ceasefire violations along the LoC and IB in 2018 so far," the MEA said.

Pakistan was also asked to abide by its bilateral commitment not to allow any territory under its control to be used for supporting terrorism against India in any manner, it added.

"It was informed that two Pakistani armed intruders have been killed by the Indian security forces during the ensuing firefight and the government of Pakistan should take custody of the dead bodies of its nationals," it said.

The issue was strongly raised by the Indian Army Tuesday during weekly telephonic conversation with Pakistan Army, sources said.

Brigadier-level officials of the Directorate General of Military Operations of India and Pakistan hold the weekly talks over hotline.

On Monday, the Army warned Pakistan Army to restrain the terrorists operating from its soil and asked it to take back bodies of the two Pakistani "intruders".

Sources said Pakistan Army is yet to respond to the Indian Army's call to take back the two bodies.