Parrikar flays Pakistan for ceasefire violations

Bengaluru, Jan 1 (IANS) Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar Thursday lashed out at Pakistan for unabatedly violating the bilateral ceasefire and regretted that Pakistani troops continued to fire even after the new year began at midnight.

"Pakistan does not like to be quiet even on the New Year, as its troops started firing after midnight. Whenever there is an attempt to infiltrate (into India), they start firing. But we (our troops) responded with double the force and no infiltration took place last night (Wednesday)," Parrikar told reporters here.

Observing that India was surrounded by two "uncomfortable" neighbours (Pakistan and China) on the northern front, he said the former (Pakistan) did not seem to learn any lesson from the ceasefire violations.

"They (Pakistani troops) started cross-border firing again and Islamabad doesn't seem to learn any lesson. We are surrounded by two neighbours who are uncomfortable with us," Parrikar quipped.

A day after an Indian paramilitary personnel and four Pakistani troopers were killed in exchange of fire Tuesday, Pakistani Rangers targetted a dozen border posts in the Samba sector in Jammu and Kashmir.

"I have directed our security forces to retaliate with double the force in the event of firing from across the border and not to hold back fire," he said.

The defence minister was in the city to attend a function on India's progress in space science, organised by Adamya Chetana Seva Utsav, which is headed by Tejaswani, wife of Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers Ananth Kumar.