‘Unprovoked action’: Pakistan protests ceasefire violation by Indian troops

FO summons Indian deputy high commissioner to hand over a protest note.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has lodged a strong protest with India over “unprovoked attack” on a Pakistani check post along their heavily-militarised de facto border, which left a Pakistani soldier dead and another injured.

The incident took place on Sunday in Haji Pir Sector where, according to the Pakistan military, Indian troops crossed the Line of Control (LoC) and stormed the check post. As a result, one Pakistani soldier was killed another injured.

According to a statement issued on Monday, the Foreign Office summoned the Indian deputy high commissioner to hand over a “protest note on the unprovoked Indian attack”.

“The Indian government was strongly urged to take appropriate measures to avoid recurrence of such incidents in the future,” the statement read.

An Indian army spokesperson, however, denied their troops crossed the LoC.  Colonel Brijesh Pandey accused the Pakistani military of firing mortar shells into a village in Uri district, which faces Haji Pir in Azad Kashmir.



“At 3:15 am [on Sunday], Pakistani troops resorted to heavy mortar firing, targeting a village in Uri sector,” Pandey told AFP, adding that some houses in the village were damaged. “We retaliated with small arms and the exchange continued for over an hour,” the spokesman said.

He said no Indian troops were hurt, and added that he did not have any information about Pakistani casualties.

There has been a ceasefire at the LoC since 2003 but there were more than 75 ceasefire violations along the LoC in 2012, killing eight people. Most of these violations were exchanges of fire between the two sides. (With additional input from AFP)

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2013.

, or President Zardari.

 

Qadri added that before Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP’s) threats, his intention was to take out a long march for a revolution -- but that now, it would be for martyrdom.

The TTP spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan, however, denied that his group had any intentions of attacking Qadri’s rally while talking to AFP via telephone.

ASWJ against Qadri

Meanwhile, Ahle Sunnat wal Jamaat (ASWJ) President Maulana Ahmed Ludhianwi lashed out at Qadri while talking to the media in Multan. The party chief said that the MQI chief came from ‘the same background as Raymond Davis’.

Ludhianwi said that Qadri was out to destabilise Pakistan, adding that the ASWJ itself had respected the interior minister’s wish to postpone their own long march. He said the Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC) would not take advantage of Qadri ‘blackmailing’ the government.

WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM AFP AND OUR CORRESPONDENT IN MULTAN

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2013.