The Foreign Office on Sunday summoned the Indian Deputy High Commissioner to record protest against the ceasefire violations by the Indian forces in Kotli and Nakyal Sectors on Saturday, which had resulted in the death of two children.

According to a statement issued by the Foreign Office spokesperson, the Acting Director General for South Asia and SAARC lodged the protest against Indian ceasefire violations.

“This year, Indian forces have carried out more than 1,100 ceasefire violations along the line of control and the Working Boundary, resulting in the death of 47 civilians and injuries to 159, as compared to 382 ceasefire violations in 2016,” read the FO statement.

The deliberate targeting of civilians is indeed deplorable and contrary to human dignity and international human rights and humanitarian laws, it added.

“Indian troops resorted to intense unprovoked firing in different sectors along the LoC [in Kotli and Poonch districts] targeting civilian populations,” Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) had said in a brief handout yesterday.

The firing left a six-year-old girl, Aiqa Ramzan, wounded in Balakot village of Nakyal sector before noon, Assistant Commissioner Waleed Anwar had said.

The ISPR said that the Indian Army also targeted the Tetrinote-Chakan da Bagh crossing point, hitting its visitors’ stand.

A picture released by ISPR showed the windowpane at the Tetrinote Terminal smashed after being hit by splinters from a shell.

Cross-LoC travel and trade through the Tetrinote-Chakan da Bagh crossing point has been suspended since July 7 due to heavy cross-border shelling in the area.

The ISPR said that Pakistan army “aggressively and effectively responded to hostile fire [by the Indian troops], silenced their guns and caused considerable damage to the posts carrying out fire.”

“Targeting civilians will not deter Kashmiri people from their just struggle against Indian oppression,” the ISPR said.

Separately, Foreign Office Spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said on Saturday that the deliberate targeting of the civilian population was a highly condemnable act, in contravention of international humanitarian and human rights laws.

“Such belligerent acts by India pose a grave threat to regional peace and security,” he tweeted.