Fresh ceasefire violation: Indian troops shell villages; two killed

Seven civilians also injured in shelling in Nakyal Sector.

ISLAMABAD:

Indian troops fired a fresh salvo of mortar shells at villages along the Line of Control (LoC) on Sunday, killing two persons and injuring seven others, police and military sources said.

Six people – including a Pakistan Army captain, have been killed in skirmishes triggered by the killing of five Indian soldiers in a cross-LoC ambush on August 5. The Indian government blamed ‘specialised forces’ of Pakistan Army for the deadly ambush.

Local officials said the Indian forces targeted civilian population in Datot and Pir Kilinger areas, in Nakyal Sector of Kotli, Azad Jammu and Kashmir. “A 17-year-old girl who was wounded in shelling died at hospital, while another injured man was brought there,” local police chief Chaudhry Majid told AFP.

A local government official earlier said a woman was killed and seven were wounded in shelling by Indian troops. “A woman was killed and at least seven other villagers were wounded in Indian shelling,” said the official, Masood-ur-Rehman.



Military sources also confirmed the fresh violation of the 2003 ceasefire agreement between the two archenemies.

Shells fired by Indian troops struck villages in Nakyal sector intermittently overnight, Rehman said, adding that three houses had been damaged and one house and a car destroyed.

Javed Budhanwi, a legislator from the area, said that Indian shelling had caused panic among more than 50,000 local residents and warned that authorities may have to evacuate civilians to safer locations. “It is difficult for people to move out at the moment as the shelling continues,” Budhanwi told AFP.

On Saturday evening, the India troops also violated ceasefire and opened unprovoked fire in the Tarkandi, Datot, Kalar, Gala and Charani areas of Nakyal sector. Last week, Indian forces fired a shell in Shaqma sector of Kargil, killing a Pakistan Army Captain Sarfraz and wounding another soldier.

According to Pakistani military sources, troops retaliated against the unprovoked Indian shelling in different sectors, forcing them to stop their misadventure. The sources added that ceasefire violations by Indian troops continued unabated in different sectors of the LoC.

In New Delhi, Indian forces blamed Pakistani troops for the fresh skirmishes. “Pakistan again violated the ceasefire by firing at our positions in Mendhar sector of Poonch at 3am on Sunday. Our troops have retaliated effectively to Pakistan’s firing. Exchange of fire is still going on in the area,” defence ministry spokesperson Col RK Palta said.

The intermittent clashes threaten to jeopardise a planned meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York next month.

A deadly flare-up along the LoC in January brought a halt to peace talks that had only just resumed following a three-year hiatus sparked by the 2008 attacks in Mumbai that killed 166 people.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2013.