By IANS,
Lahore/Amritsar : Tension prevailed at the Pakistan-India border after loud explosions were heard on the Indian side near the Attari-Wagah check post. However, Pakistan denied Saturday that its forces were responsible for the blasts.
The denial came at a flag meeting in the wee hours Saturday with the paramilitary Pakistan Rangers saying they were not responsible for the explosions that were heard on the Indian side around 10.30 p.m. Friday.
The Indian Border Security Force (BSF) had opened retaliatory fire after the explosions were heard.
An official statement is expected later Saturday.
BSF officials Saturday morning launched an operation to find if rockets were fired on the Indian side.
“We did retaliatory fire from machine guns and have lodged a strong protest with the Pakistani side,” Punjab frontier Deputy Inspector General of police Jagir Singh told IANS in Amritsar.
Residents of border villages near the Attari-Wagah checkpost in Amritsar district informed BSF officials about rockets landing in fields, BSF Inspector General of police for Punjab frontier, Himmat Singh, said.
“We are ascertaining if any more rockets were fired. We retaliated with machine gun fire,” the IG said.
The BSF cordoned off the area and retaliated with machine-gun fire into Pakistan.
Later, commandants of the BSF and Pakistan Rangers held a meeting at the border early Saturday to investigate the incident.
The Indian side lodged a strong protest over repeated incidents of shelling from across the border.
This is the second incident of rockets being fired into Indian territory from Pakistani soil. Earlier, three rockets were fired into Indian territory in early July.