ISLAMABAD: Indian troops resorted to unprovoked firing in Chirikot and Satwal Sectors on the Line of Control on Saturday.
According to Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), two persons including a girl were martyred and three others wounded in the firing. The Indian forces used small and heavy arms, including mortars. Pakistan Army troops effectively responded to the Indian aggression.
Meanwhile a private TV channel claimed that at least five civilians, four of them women, were reported killed and 10 others injured in the shelling incidents, the highest death toll in a single day in many months of cross-border violence.
“There has been heavy firing and shelling by Indian troops in different parts of Abbaspur and Hajira sectors since 5:30am in the morning,” said Raja Tahir Mumtaz, the deputy commissioner of district Poonch, where these two sectors fall in.
In an interview with a private TV channel Raja Tahir Mumtaz said that Mohammad Sharif, a 75-year-old resident of Bhaira village near the Tetrinote crossing point in Hajira sector, lost his life after a mortar shell landed on his mud-house, destroying it completely.
Apart from him, 70-year-old woman Sassi Begum was also killed in Tetrinote. She had come from Mandhol village in Battal sector to see her relatives in Tetrinote.
DC Mumtaz said that Riyasat, 35, and Aqsa Iftikhar, 18, were injured in Tetrinote.
Meanwhile, a 26-year-old woman, Faiza Saleem, was killed and two young girls – Adiba, 22, and Mahnoor, 17 – were injured in Satwal village of Abbaspur sector. They belonged to the same family, Mumtaz said.
Another woman, Kulsoom, 35, was killed and her 14-year-old son Zahid injured in the Dhakki Chafar village of Abbaspur sector, he added.
“Initially, Zahid was injured and when Kulsoom rushed to rescue him, she too fell victim to the shelling and died on the spot,” the deputy commissioner said.
Abida Parveen, 22, was injured in Chafar and two teenage boys, Rizwan Hanif, 16, and Faizan Ali, 14, were injured in Batol and Chaatra villages of the same sector, he added.
“These are the initial reports, but given the magnitude of shelling, I am afraid the casualties may rise,” the deputy commissioner said.
In Kotli district, a 22-year-old girl, Aniba Jamshed, was critically injured in Indian firing in the Lanjot village of Nakyal sector at about 6:30am.
“A bullet fired by the Indian troops hit her in the head, rendering her critically wounded,” a police official told a private TV channel from Nakyal police station, adding that she was rushed to District Headquarters Hospital Kotli.
“The woman later succumbed to her injuries in the afternoon,” SSP Kotli Chaudhry Zulqarnain Sarfraz told the private TV channel.
Elsewhere in the same sector, two men – Mohammad Ilyas and Jahangir – were injured in the Oli Panjni village, he added.
The heavily militarised LoC that splits the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir between Pakistan and India has been extremely tense for quite some time, and as a result civilian casualties occur frequently.
The latest casualties have pushed the number of those killed in AJK in Indian shelling during the ongoing year to 17 and those injured to over 105, according to officials at the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA).
Meanwhile, Pakistan has lodged strong protest with India over its unprovoked firing in Chirikot and Satwal Sectors of Line of Control.
The Director General (SA & SAARC), Dr. Mohammad Faisal, summoned the Indian Deputy High Commissioner, Mr. J.P. Singh and condemned the unprovoked ceasefire violations by the Indian occupation forces in Chirikot and Satwal Sectors on 8thJuly 2017, resulting in shahadat of 2 civilians, a 22-year old girl in Satwal village and a man in Tetri Note village and injuries to 3 others.
The deliberate targeting of civilians is indeed deplorable and contrary to human dignity and international human rights and humanitarian laws.
The Director General urged the Indian side to respect the 2003 Ceasefire arrangement; investigate this and other incidents of ceasefire violations; instruct the Indian forces to respect the ceasefire, in letter and spirit and maintain peace on the LoC. He said that the Indian side should permit UNMOGIP to play its mandated role as per the United Nation (UN) Security Council resolutions.
Azad Jamu Kashmir (AJK) President Masood Khan and Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan have strongly condemned the unprovoked Indian shelling on Abbaspur and Nakyal Sectors at Line of Control on Saturday.
In a statement, AJK President and Prime Ministers said that India by targeting innocent civilian at LoC is trying to divert the attention of world community from the deteriorating human rights situation in held valley.
They said that such cowardice could not deter people of Azad Kashmir to stop raising voice for their brethren in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
Meanwhile, prime minister AJK directed the administration of Poonch and Kotli districts to provide best available medical facilities to those injured in the Indian firing.He also directed the concerned authorities to ensure protection of civilian residing on Line of Control.
