Peace on border with Pakistan will be ensured: Mufti

Jammu, March 23 (IANS) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed said on Monday that firing from across the border was a great challenge and he would leave no stone unturned to ensure peace at the border with Pakistan.

Speaking in the state legislative council on Monday, Sayeed said there was no violation of ceasefire from across the borders in Jammu region from 2002 to 2010.

"We have to solve the problem and ensure peace for the border residents.

"Our border farmer is a big sufferer because his crops get damaged and lives are in danger because of firing from across the border.

"We will engage Pakistan for peace and I will ensure that peace returns to our border areas," Sayeed said during a debate on cross border firing on the international border in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts of the Jammu region.

Bilateral ceasefire signed by India and Pakistan in 2003 held well till the last two to three years bringing in a modicum of normalcy into the lives of thousands of villagers living on the two sides of the international border and the LoC in Indian and Pakistan administers parts of divided Kashmir.

Since 2013, Pakistan troops have frequently been targeting Indian border guards and civilian populations on the international border which often forces hundreds of villagers to abandon homes and agricultural fields to seek shelter at safer places away from the live of Pakistani fire.