Ceasefire violations: Unprovoked Indian firing kills 9 civilians

BSF targeted villages along working boundary in Sialkot on Eid days.

MUZAFFARABAD/ LAHORE:

At least nine civilians — including a woman — were killed and 35 injured in unprovoked firing by Indian troops along the Working Boundary since the first day of Eidul Azha, officials said on Wednesday.

India’s Border Security Force (BSF) has been intermittently firing small arms and mortars in Charwa, Harpal, Bajra Gahri and Chaprar Sectors of the Working Boundary in Sialkot since October 2, officials of Punjab Rangers said. Most of the casualties occurred during Eid days, they added. Apart from human casualties, 28 cattle were also killed and 19 injured in the firing.

Sporadic firing by Indian BSF soldiers continues in different sectors of the Working Boundary, Sector Commander Chenab Rangers Brigadier Waseem Zafar Bhatti told journalists on Wednesday. He added that the BSF has violated the ceasefire 31 times so far this year, while there had been 33 violations by Indian troops in 2013.

The Pakistani forces effectively retaliated to the Indian firing. “Fresh ceasefire violation by India along Working Boundary in Pukhlian, Chaprar, Charwa Sectors with mortar and small arms fire was being responded effectively,” the chief military spokesperson, Maj-Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa, said in a post on microblogging site Twitter.



Brigadier Bhatti said that the BSF was deliberately targeting civilian population in border villages, while the Rangers refrained from targeting civilians on the other side of the border. He added that the Indian firing damaged and destroyed a large number of houses and buildings in various villages. He said the BSF has a habit of firing at civilian population in the border villages of Pakistan especially on religious festivals like Eid.

Maj-Gen Khan Tahir Javed Khan, the director general of Pakistan Rangers Punjab, travelled to the Working Boundary in Sialkot while firing by the BSF continued. He visited forward border posts and villages in Charwa Sector. He appreciated the morale, professionalism and courage of Rangers Jawans and officers.

Maj-Gen Khan was briefed on the recent ‘unprovoked firing’ by the BSF on border villages and losses caused. He also appreciated the Rangers personnel for effectively retaliating to the Indian firing. Representatives of national and international media also visited the Working Boundary and met the victims. They visited the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Sialkot and met with those who were injured by the BSF firing.

Like the Working Boundary, Indian troops also resorted to ‘unprovoked firing’ along the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir on the occasion of Eidul Azha. Officials say that Indian forces have violated the LoC ceasefire 15 times since Oct 2. Indian troops fired mortar shells at civilian population in Nakyal, Killar, Goi and Dara Sher Khan areas of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

On the first day of Eid, Indian troops opened fire without any provocation in Nakyal, Darasher Khan, Tatapani and Goyai areas. On the second day, they again shelled the Dara Sher Khan area, which 12 villages with an overall population of 7,000, located close to the LoC.

“A 19-year-old girl, Rizya Bibi, was injured in Dera Sher Khan who was later shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital Kotli where she succumbed to her injuries last Tuesday,” villager Fida Khan told The Express Tribune. Another villager, Sardar Rahim said that the Indian army was deliberately targeting the civil population.

Meanwhile, AJK Prime Minister Chaudhry Abdul Majeed condemned the unprovoked Indian firing along the LoC. He appealed to the United Nations Military Observers Group for India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) stationed both in Muzaffarabad and Srinagar to take notice of Indian shelling on the civil population.


Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2014.