SIALKOT: Three people, a minor among them, died in heavy mortar shelling by India in Bajwat Sector of the Sialkot Working Boundary on Tuesday.

District Coordination Officer Dr Asif Tufail confirmed the killing and said 22 other people, including eight women and six children, were injured. Besides, 65 domestic animals also died in the shelling.

He said terrified villagers moved to safe places. The district administration has established a relief camp at Kaahliyaan to house them.

According to the Punjab Rangers, the Indian Border Security Force resorted to shelling at 5.30am which continued intermittently till 1.30pm.

Mortar shells landed in the courtyard of a house in Sukhiyal village and killed Mohammad Asif, 14, and injured his father Mohammad Akram, 45, siblings Fatima Akram, 8, and Qaisar Akram, 11, and uncle Mohammad Aslam.

In Kachhi Maand village, Mohammad Adnan, 22, was killed by a shell, while Mohammad Faisal, 9, died in the Combined Military Hospital, Sialkot.

Farmer Mohammad Sadiq and his wife Shehnaz Bibi suffered serious injuries in Kheri-Bajwat village.

Rescue 1122 took the injured to the CMH where the condition of Mohammad Sadiq, Shehnaz Bibi, Mohammad Akram, his two minor children Fatima and Qaiser and Mohammad Aslam was stated to be critical.

MNA Armughan Subhani, who visited the affected villages, said several houses had been damaged in Sukhiyal, Kachhi Maand, Looni, Kheri and adjoining villages.

AFP adds: The Pakistan foreign ministry accused Indian troops of “unprovoked firing “and targeting villages across the border.

“The government of Pakistan lodged protest with the government of India on the latest unprovoked ceasefire violations by the Indian security forces,” the ministry said in a statement.

Meanwhile, an Indian man was killed when a mortar bomb fired from the Pakistani side landed near his house in the Pargwal sector, 340km south of Srinagar.

“One young man died during the shelling. We are asking residents in the area to remain confined to their homes,” Danesh Rana, inspector general of police in the Indian occupied Kashmir, said.

A BSF official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the exchange started in the morning when guards noticed “suspicious movement” in the bushes near the border and opened fire.

“It was an attempt at infiltration. The Pakistan side soon fired heavy weapons, which is being retaliated (by Indian troops),” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2015

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