Zeenews Bureau
Amritsar: Pakistani forces on Friday night fired two rockets towards the Indian territory, which fell in agriculture fields in two adjacent villages, drawing retaliation from BSF using machine guns.
There was, however, no casualty on the Indian side in the Pakistani action, BSF Inspector General for Punjab frontier Himmat Singh said.
Singh said Pakistan fired rockets which landed in an open area at villages Modhey and Dhoneya Khurd near the Attari-Wagah checkpost in Amritsar district at around 10.00 pm after which the BSF troops hit back by opening fire from machine guns.
BSF officials this morning launched an operation to find if any more rockets were fired into the Indian side near the Attari joint check post from across the barbed-wire fencing border between both countries.
According to the BSF IG, residents of border villages informed BSF officials about rockets landing in fields.
"We are ascertaining if any more rockets were fired. We retaliated with machine gun fire," he added.
Later, commandants of the BSF and Pakistan Rangers held a meeting at the border in the wee hours of Saturday to investigate the incident. The Indian side lodged a strong protest over repeated incidents of shelling from across the border.
This is the second incident of rockets being fired into Indian territory from Pakistani soil. Earlier, three rockets were fired into Indian territory in early July.
The attack happened on a day when the BSF deployed its first batch of women constables at the border to facilitate frisking of women going for work in fields.
Sixteen of a batch of 178 women constables of the force was deployed at Rorawari village near Attari border in Punjab on Friday.
(With IANS/PTI inputs)
First Published: Saturday, September 12, 2009, 09:13