ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party has urged the government to take notice of Indian shelling along the Working Boundary near Sialkot.

In a statement issued here on Monday, PPP Vice President Senator Sherry Rehman said the firing was entirely unacceptable as the Sialkot sector was not in contested area and located the plains of Punjab where unchecked border traffic was not possible.

“We hear disturbing reports of homes and infrastructure along the Working Boundary being damaged by heavy mortar shelling from the Indian side,” she said.

The Chenab Rangers has naturally retaliated, but this is not the first time Pakistan’s civilians have been targeted this way in the space of less than a year.

“Action like this in a nuclear neighbourhood is neither safe nor responsible,” Ms Rehman said, pointing to risks of such accelerated hostile activity in theatres where potential as well as old conflicts were clear and present.

“Yet, I do not see the international community rushing to scotch this fire. Pakistan has been reaching out to India regularly and at multiple forums, but all such initiatives have been met with no clear policy response from India, except public conditions,” added Ms Rehman.

“The Modi government must decide the path it wants to chart for India. Does it want to be seen as a celebrator of war, as in the 1965 war carnival it has organised, or as a party that like its earlier avatar in Vajpayee, made bold strides for changing the game in South Asia?” she asked.

She said muscular behaviour would only fuel extremism in both countries, and for that “we should all have no room for equivocation”.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2015

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