ISLAMABAD: As India continued ceasefire violations along the Line of Control (LoC), the Foreign Office asked five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Monday to use their good offices to secure an end to hostilities and for resumption of stalled peace dialogue with New Delhi.

“Adviser on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz has called upon P-5 countries to urge India to respect the ceasefire agreement and engage in a meaningful and serious dialogue,” a foreign ministry spokesperson said after a briefing for envoys of the countries that are permanent members of the UNSC on the situation on the LoC and Working Boundary (WB).

The latest violations on the LoC and WB have continued unabated for almost 10 days now in which 13 Pakistanis have lost their lives and 53 others have been injured. Fifty incidents of violations by Indian troops have been reported during the period with the latest happening in Nezapir Sector near Rawalkot.

Mr Aziz had a day earlier written to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urging the UN to help defuse the situation and ensure effective monitoring of the truce violations by the UN Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP).

Two more women of Azad Kashmir injured in shelling

The adviser cautioned that continued hostilities not only affected peace efforts with India, but were also a major distraction for the army engaged in the Zarb-i-Azb counter-terrorism operation in North Waziristan.

During the briefing for envoys, Mr Aziz recalled Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s vision of “peaceful South Asia” and said that the prime minister had accepted the invitation of Mr Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony to achieve that goal.

He regretted that the Indian leadership did not reciprocate the goodwill gestures and instead gave provocative statements, cancelled foreign secretaries’ talks and resorted to unprovoked shelling in areas along the LoC and WB.

A meeting of the National Security Council on Friday had warned that escalation along the de-facto border would complicate the situation and noted that it was the responsibility of the leadership of both countries to work for de-escalation.

Meanwhile, a military spokesman said that Pakistani troops were befittingly responding to the Indian firing.

Our Staff Correspondent in Muzaffarabad adds: Indian troops resumed unprovoked shelling along the Line of Control on Monday, leaving two women injured in Azad Kashmir, officials said.

The shelling, which had paused on Sunday, began in Kehler Khurshidabad sector of the Haveli district at about 3pm and lasted three hours. There was no casualty because it was restricted to military posts.

In Neza Pir sector of the same district, the shelling began at 5:45pm and Indian troops used both small and heavy arms.

Sharifan Bibi, 40, was injured in Kerni Mohri village and Zeenat Bibi, 35, in Kerni Sharqi village of Neza Pir sector, Deputy Commissioner Raja Mohammad Irshad Khan told Dawn by telephone.

Since Oct 6, three people have been injured in this sector in the Indian shelling.

An ISPR spokesman said that Indian troops had resumed shelling without any provocation.

Naveed Kabir, a police official in Darra Sher Khan, the remotest village on the border of Poonch and Kotli district, said that shelling had also begun in his area.

“They are using both machineguns and mortars… Situation appears to be tense,” he said.

Shelling also started in the Nakyal sector in the Kotli district at about 8pm and it was continuing till the filing of this report.

“There has been intense shelling in Daatot, Kundan, Saloor, Pathuchi and Kaniyat villages… It’s dreadful,” Haji Azad, a resident of Nakyal sector, told Dawn by telephone.

A police official in Nakyal confirmed the shelling, but said he was unable to ascertain if there were any losses.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2014