Jammu/Rajouri, July 18
More than 50 students of two schools, who were trapped due to heavy mortar shelling by the Pakistan army in the Naushera sector in Jammu's Rajouri district, were rescued on Tuesday, an official said.
Authorities rescued 12 children from a primary school in the afternoon, while more than 40 students of a government high school were evacuated in the evening.
The Pakistan army resorted to shelling in four sectors of Rajouri and Poonch districts this morning.
Earlier, Deputy Commissioner said the school is located at a height which had made the task of evacuation difficult.
However, police and other authorities evacuated 12 students from a primary school at Kadali in Naushera.
The children were ferried from the school in bullet-proof vehicles during the intermittent shelling by Pakistan, DC said.
Three bullet-proof vehicles were sent to evacuate the students from high school at Sehar.
A population of 4,500-5,000 in the villages of Panjgrain, Rajdhani and Naika in the Rajouri-Poonch belt was affected due to the shelling by Pakistani troops, he said.
“The Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatic weapons and mortars from 6.45 am in the Bhimbher Gali (Rajouri) and Poonch sectors along the Line of Control,” a Defence spokesperson said.
The Indian Army is retaliating strongly and effectively, he said.
An Army jawan and a nine-year-old girl were yesterday killed while four persons injured in heavy firing and mortar shelling by the Pakistan Army along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch, Rajouri and Baramulla districts. —With agency inputs
