ISLAMABAD: The Pak­is­tan Army on Tuesday infor­med Indian military about visit of troops to villages along the Line of Control (LoC) with census staff to avoid any misunderstanding.

“The Indian army has been approached through hotline contact and asked to inform ground troops about movement of civil and military enumerators to civil populated areas lying close to LoC in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltis­tan,” the Inter-Services Pub­lic Relations (ISPR) said.

It did not tell about the level of contact. The two countries have a hotline arrangement at the level of director general military operations.

The phase-II of the national population census commenced on Tuesday and will continue till May 25. During this phase, census will be conducted in 87 districts across the country, including five in Azad Kashmir — Neelum, Poonch, Mirpur, Haveli and Hattianbala — and as many in GB — Shigar, Kharmang, Hunza, Diamer and Astore.

Some of the areas to be covered in this phase are located along the LoC and have been hit by Indian cross-LoC shelling. Ceasefire violations by India have recently been on the rise and this year there have been 222 violations in the first three and a half months in which four civilians lost their lives. Last year there were 382 violations by India in which 47 casualties took place.

Since civil enumerators escorted by army soldiers have to visit the areas along the LoC, it was deemed necessary to inform the Indian side about the movement to ensure safety and security of the civil and military personnel.

The ISPR said the hotline contact was made as a confidence-building measure and to intimate the other side about the movement.

A similar contact was made at the start of phase-1 of the census for areas along the LoC and the Working Boundary, which began from March 15 and continued till April 15.

The Pakistan Army is participating in the exercise providing personnel for security.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2017