India claims Pakistan violated ceasefire

Pakistani troops today violated the ceasefire along the de facto border with India, a defence spokesman claimed while Pakistan claimed that their Navy foiled an attempt by Indian submarine to enter the country's waters.

India claimed Pakistani troops violated the ceasefire targeting forward posts and villages in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

The latest incident took place in Nowshera sector of Rajouri district in India at around 11:30 hours, drawing an effective retaliation by the Indian Army, our New Delhi correspondent reports quoting an Indian defence spokesperson.

The spokesman said that the Pakistani army, initiated shelling with mortars and firing of small arms. 

There was no immediate report of any casualty on the Indian side, he said, adding the cross-border shelling was continuing when last reports came in.

There has been an increase in firing by Pakistan since India's air strike at Jaish-e-Mohammad terror training camp in Balakot on February 26 in a "non-military and pre-emptive" action following the February 14 suicide bombing in Pulwama in which 40 Indian paramilitary men were killed. 

Four persons, including three members of a family, were killed and several others injured in over 60 ceasefire violations along the Line of Control especially in Rajouri and Poonch districts last week.

Meanwhile, a Pakistan daily, Dawn, reported that Pakistan Navy detected an Indian submarine last night trying to enter Pakistani waters and successfully thwarted the attempt, the Navy's spokesperson said today (Tuesday) — exactly a week after India's aerial violation of the Line of Control that sent tensions soaring between the two nuclear-armed states.

"The Pakistan Navy used its specialised skills to ward off the submarine, successfully keeping it from entering Pakistani waters," a statement from the spokesperson said, according to Dawn.

This is the second time since 2016 that the Pakistan Navy has detected an Indian submarine trying to enter Pakistani waters. Pakistan territorial waters is 12 nautical miles while its seabed territory — the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) — grew to 290,000 square kilometres in 2015. EEZ signifies an area of coastal water and seabed within a certain distance of a country's coastline that cannot be entered without permission or prior information.

The fact that an Indian submarine laden with modern technology was detected by the Pakistan Navy is a loss for the Indian navy, said the spokesperson, adding: "Keeping in view the government's initiative of peace, the Indian submarine was not targetted by the Pakistan Navy."

Learning from this incident, India should also work towards peace, the statement added.