Army today said, Pakistan is making a serious mistake by ceasefire violations and a befitting reply would be given with full force at the time and place of its choice. General Officer Commanding, 25 Infantry Division, Major General V P Singh was replying to volley of questions about what strong message he wants to convey to Pakistan with regard to increase in ceasefire violations, cross border firing and Border Action Team(BAT) attack on forward Indian posts along LoC in Poonch.

Brigade Commander, 120 Infantry Brigade, A. Sengupta said, Army has inputs about Pakistan trying to engineer more BAT attacks along the border. He said, Army is ready for any such attack.

Pakistan resorted to three ceasefire violations in the last 24 hours the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. In Kashmir, Army foiled an infiltration bid in Keran sector of Kupwara district in the wee hours today.

Army sources told AIR that alert troops after noticing suspicious movement challenged the militants triggering an exchange of firing between the two sides. It lasted for nearly three hours. The militants apparently crossed back to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

In yet another ceasefire violation, Pakistani troops fired on Indian positions along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir, forcing Indian troops to retaliate. Defence spokesman S.N. Acharya said Pakistani troops started unprovoked firing on Indian forward posts in Mendhar sector at 1405 hrs today using automatic weapons and mortars.

Indian troops retaliated effectively. The firing between the two sides was still going on when reports last came in. Earlier, last night Pakistani troops fired on Indian forward posts along the LoC in Krishna Ghati, Balakote and Hamirpur belts of Poonch district. The firing which was started by Pak troops around 2345 hours last night continued till morning. However, there was no loss of life on the Indian side.

Brigadier Sengupta said that Indian Army is ready for any Pakistani BAT Attack. He said the unprovoked firing from Pakistani side is aimed at helping terrorists infiltrate and demoralise the troops posted along LoC. But he said the morale of our troops is very high. He said the ceasefire violations from across which are very intense and totally unprovoked are due to frustration over failure of infiltration bids by terrorists.

There have been 70 ceasefire violations by the Pakistani troops this year from January one to August 5, which is 85 per cent more than the last year during the same corresponding period. The fierce exchanges in recent weeks have cast a shadow on the prospect of the 2003 Indo-Pak border truce.