RAWALPINDI: To forestall further aggression by Indian troops, the Azad Kashmir Forces, supported by the Pakistan Army, today [Sept 1] crossed the cease-fire line and occupied two Indian posts — Dewa and Chhamb — some seven miles deep in occupied territory. India today threw its Air Force into the Kashmir fighting, using jet fighter bombers, and in the air battle that ensued four Indian planes were shot down well behind our lines. No damage was done to any of the Pakistan Air Force planes.

An official spokesman said the Azad Kashmir troops captured a huge quantity of arms and equipment, and took a large number of prisoners. He said today’s action was “purely a defensive measure” and taken when Pakistan was “left with no choice”. The spokesman said it was India who had widened the area of conflict in Kashmir by bringing in their Air Force.

[Meanwhile, as reported by our correspondent from Washington,] India virtually considers the Kashmir cease-fire line as dead, according to a report in The New York Times this morning from its New Delhi correspondent. The report quoted an Indian official as saying “the cease-fire line is where the firing stops, not where some line is drawn on the map”.

The Times report further said that India had embarked upon a “war of liberation” of Azad Kashmir. Indians had no intention of giving up the seized sectors in Azad Kashmir and All India Radio had called them “liberated areas”, the report said. The puppet regime in Srinagar was said to be making preparations for taking over civilian administration in those areas, specially in the Uri-Poonch sector. The New York Times report said “officials here say India has no intention of giving up her newly won positions in the foreseeable future.”

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2015

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