India resorts to unprovoked firing at LoC

ISPR says no casualties have been reported as yet; troops responded 'effectively'

India’s Border Security Force (BSF) resorted to ‘unprovoked’ firing at the Line of Control (LoC) in Kelar sector, near Bagh on late Sunday night and early Monday morning.

According to Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Pakistani troops "responded effectively" to Indian shelling and firing.

"An exchange of fire which started Sunday night at 11pm lasted till 2am before it began once again at 9am on Monday. However, no loss has been reported as yet," ISPR said.

Read: Unprovoked Indian firing: BSF violates ceasefire at LoC again

Separately, the Senate Standing Committee on Defence will take up this week the latest acts of indiscriminate firing and ceasefire violations by Indian troops that have led to the deaths of many civilians across the Line of Control and Working Boundary.

A number of meetings of different standing committees of the upper house will also take place in the Parliament House during the ongoing week.

Read: Senate panel to take up Indian aggression on LoC

The committees are: finance revenue economics affairs, statistics and privitisation, law, justice and human rights, cabinet secretariat, textile industry, states and frontier regions, defence and defence production.

Further, Pakistan has urged the United Nations Security Council to take notice of the escalating incidents of firing by Indian troops across the LoC in the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir and the Working Boundary in which a large number of civilians have been killed and injured.

According to a statement released by Pakistan’s UN mission, Indian security forces violated the ceasefire 36 times in July this year, killing five civilians and injuring six others. The number spiked significantly in August, the statement said, with some 20 civilians killed and 97 other wounded in 90 ceasefire violations by India.

Read: ‘Unprovoked’ shelling: Pakistan draws UN attention to Indian aggression

Over the past several weeks, Pakistan has been raising the issue of violations by India along the LoC and WB at the UN with top officials in the Departments of Political Affairs and Peacekeeping Operations. In this connection, Lodhi briefed the senior UN leadership, including Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson, about India’s provocative actions deliberately targeting the civilian population and called for the UN Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to investigate these violations.