Indian Army effectively retaliates to "unprovoked" small firing by Pakistan

Pic/AFP

The Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked small-arms firing during the intervening night of April 29 and 30 from its posts across the Line of Control (LoC) in multiple sectors of Jammu and Kashmir, prompting a swift and proportionate response from the Indian Army, according to an official statement released on Tuesday, reported news agency ANI.

Indian positions in the Naushera, Sunderbani, and Akhnoor sectors of the Jammu region were targeted in the initial attack. Subsequent updates confirmed that ceasefire violations were also recorded in the Baramulla and Kupwara districts in north Kashmir, as well as across the International Border (IB) in the Pargwal sector.

"During the night of 29-30 April, Pakistan Army posts initiated unprovoked small-arms fire across the Line of Control opposite the Naushera, Sunderbani, and Akhnoor sectors. Indian Army troops responded swiftly and proportionately," the Army said, reported ANI.

The firing later extended to additional locations, with the Indian Army asserting that its troops retaliated appropriately at every instance. This marks the sixth consecutive day of such ceasefire violations since the Pakistan Army's initial small-arms firing on the night of April 25-26.

In parallel to the LoC skirmishes, Pakistan-based cyber actors attempted to breach India's digital infrastructure, targeting publicly accessible welfare and educational websites. These efforts follow Pakistan's repeated violations of the ceasefire and suspected links to the recent terror attack in Pahalgam reported ANI.

Operating under the alias "IOK Hacker" (Internet of Khilafah), the group tried to deface webpages, disrupt services, and extract personal information after failing to infiltrate mission-critical national networks. India's layered cybersecurity systems detected and neutralized these intrusions in real-time, tracing their origin back to Pakistan reported ANI.

Intelligence assessments confirm four related incidents. The websites of Army Public School (APS) Srinagar and APS Ranikhet were targeted with inflammatory content, with APS Srinagar also facing a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. An attempted breach of the Army Welfare Housing Organisation (AWHO) database and a concurrent effort to compromise the Indian Air Force Placement Organisation portal were also detected reported ANI.

All affected websites were promptly isolated, and corrective measures were implemented. No operational or classified networks were compromised.

These unsuccessful attacks underscore both the adversary's intent to destabilize and the resilience of India's defence systems - both physical and digital.

(With inputs from ANI)