Pakistani troops on Monday violated ceasefire by targeting forward posts and villages along the Line of Control in the Akhnoor sector, breaking a two-day lull, officials said.

'The firing from across the border started around 3am and stopped at 0630 hours,' a defence spokesman said, adding that the firing was unprovoked. ' The Indian Army retaliated strongly and effectively,' he said. There was no report of any casualty on the Indian side.

Barring a two-hour cross-border firing in Nowshera sector of Rajouri district Saturday afternoon, the guns had fallen silent all along the LoC since Friday night.

The lull in the cross-border firing had come as a relief to the border residents, especially in the twin districts of Poonch and Rajouri, where Pakistan had violated ceasefire for over 50 times, killing four persons, three of who were from the same family.

The ceasefire violations by Pakistan witnessed a spurt after India's air strike at Jaish-e-Mohammad terror camp in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on February 26 in a 'preemptive' action following the terrorist group's February 14 suicide bombing in Pulwama in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed.