New Delhi: Union Minister for Defence and Finance, Arun Jaitley, on Monday gave a stern warning to Pakistan after its troops violated ceasefire along the Indo-Pak international border and said that Indian armed forces are equipped to retaliate to such provocations.
"This is resulting in a series of ceasefire violations as a result of which innocent civilians have lost their lives. Pakistan must realise that the kind of environment it is generating between the two countries is certainly not going to help in normalising relations. The onus of creating a positive environment is on Pakistan which is utterly failing to do so.
"Let everybody be assured that our armed forces and para-military forces are fully ready and they are responding to each of these provacations from Pakistan," Jaitley told PTI.
While deploring the ceasefire violations, Jaitley said that Pakistan should realise that it will not help in defusing tensions between the two countries.
The recent ceasefire violations took place in Arnia sub-sector of the international border in Jammu district as the country celebrated Eid-ul-Azha festival.
Five civilians were killed in the shelling while 29 others have been injured.
According to reports, due to heavy shelling from the Pakistani side, mortar shells have fallen inside the bus stand in Arnia sector.
The area is barely kilometers away from the international Border.
This is the 11th time Pakistani troops have violated the ceasefire since October 1. There have been seven ceasefire violations along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch and three along the IB in Jammu.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that Pakistan should realise that times have changed and stop ceasefire violations now.
