MUZAFFARABAD: Stu­dents and elders staged a rally here on Monday to condemn recent shelling in the Leepa Valley, towards southeast of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) capital.

The procession began from Eidgah, amid a light drizzle, and concluded outside the City Campus of University of AJK, with participants in the rally chanting anti-India and pro-peace slogans.

Young children who formed the rally’s sizeable strength were holding placards, inscribed with slogans calling for an end to ceasefire violations in the Leepa valley and elsewhere along the Line of Control (LoC).

The elders who accompanied them included political activists, traders and lawyers.

The rally was organised under the aegis of “All Parties Alliance of Leepa Karnah”, an area highly vulnerable to Indian gun positions from across the unmarked dividing line.

On Saturday, four people, including a groom, were injured in the Leepa valley in Indian shelling.

Prior to that, a teenage boy was killed and three others were injured in the enemy shelling in the same area on Oct 31.

“Stop bloodshed and revive peace,” read one of the placards.

Speaking to participants on the occasion, PPP leader Shaukat Javed Mir emphasised that Pakistan and the international community should force India to respect the November 2003 ceasefire agreement and avoid targeting innocent civilians.

He regretted that the AJK government had not provided a single penny in aid to the victims of the Indian shelling.

Instead, he alleged, the injured people were charged Rs7,000 for the ambulance that had brought them to Muzaffarabad and Rs3,000 each for the CT scan.

“The attitude of the AJK government amounts to rubbing salt into the wounds of the victims of India’s madness along the LoC,” he remarked.

Trader leader Khawaja Abdus Samad pointed out that in spite of heavy shelling, Leepa valley residents had not quit their area and had defended the frontiers shoulder to shoulder with the armed forces (of Pakistan).

“They deserve a special treatment… The AJK government and all other authorities should take every possible step to mitigate their sufferings,” he said.

Participants in the peace rally also unanimously called for launching of a free chopper service twice a week to help residents shuttle between their snow-capped valley and the state capital.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2018