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Army asks Pakistan to take back the corpses, but it denies any hand in the infiltration attempts
The Army has asked Pakistan to take back the bodies of its Border Action Team (BAT) personnel lying in Indian territory, Army sources said on Sunday.
“The Pakistan Army was contacted by us on Saturday evening to get the bodies of its personnel retrieved in the Keran sector for last rites. It is yet to respond,” an Army source said. The bodies are lying in the open, he added.
Except for sporadic small arms fire, the Line of Control (LoC) remained largely calm during the day.
The Army said it had foiled a BAT attempt to infiltrate on Saturday and in the ensuing exchange of fire, inflicted heavy casualties on the team.
“The bodies of five to seven possibly Pakistan regulars or Special Service Group commandos, along with maybe some terrorists, have been seen on our side of the LoC close to our posts,” Army officials said. Many BAT members fled taking advantage of the bad weather, they said.
Army sources said there had been a spurt in infiltration attempts and BAT actions in the past few days. These had been foiled.
“There had been four or five infiltration attempts and three or four of them were by the BAT,” one officer said.
Humanitarian offer
On the offer on the bodies, a senior Army source said, “It is unlikely that Pakistan will accept the humanitarian offer. It is not surprising because they had done the same with many of their fallen soldiers of the Northern Light Infantry in Kargil and hidden dozens of bodies and tents in Balakot. The list of denials is endless,” the source said. The Director-General of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) quickly denied any “cross LoC action by Pakistan”, and called the possession of bodies by India as “mere propaganda”.
“Such blatant lies/staged dramas are Indian disinformation manoeuvre to divert world attention from increased atrocities by Indian occupation forces inside Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” he tweeted.
On Saturday, as heavy exchange of fire was under way, he alleged that the Indian Army had used cluster bombs along the LoC which was quickly denied by India as yet another of “Pakistan’s lie, deceit and deception”.
