Ceasefire violations: Indian troops shell Nakyal sector

Residents say continued shelling across LoC has led to food, medicine shortage.

MUZAFFARABAD/ NEW DELHI/ ISLAMABAD:

The Indian Army violated the ceasefire along the Line of Control again on Sunday, shelling civilian areas on the Pakistani side of the ceasefire line, according to residents and military sources.

Sources in the Pakistan Army said Indian troops resorted to ‘unprovoked firing’ at the civilian population of the Nakyal sector in Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s Kotli district. No loss of life or injuries were reported in the latest incident of cross-border clashes.

“Indian troops started firing mortar shells on houses, shops, school buildings and cattle sheds around 1:30pm [on Sunday],” a resident of the Nakyal sector told The Express Tribune. He said the shelling compelled many residents to remain indoors and forced others to leave the area in search of refuge elsewhere.

Other residents said the shelling from the Indian side had cut off villages in the Nakyal sector, leading to food and medicine shortages in the area. They added they were also unable to shift the injured to Kotli for treatment.

Cross border violations from the Indian side had earlier injured three people in the locality.

Meanwhile, a military official dismissed suggestions by an Indian Army officer that Pakistan Army was planning to escalate attacks across the LoC. He said Pakistan was fully committed to the 2003 ceasefire agreement.



Foreign office officials also said that Pakistan would observe restraint in the face of ongoing hostilities.

The Indian Army on Sunday claimed it had intelligence that Pakistan Army’s Border Action Team (BAT) will escalate attacks along the LoC.

“There are inputs that they (BAT) are going to try something,” said Brigadier A Sengupta, commander of India’s 120th Infantry Brigade.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 19^th, 2013.