MUZAFFARABAD: A woman and a man were killed and five other persons, including a teenager, injured on Friday when Indian troops resorted to unprovoked shelling from across the Line of Control (LoC) in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

The casualties took place in Abbaspur sector of Poonch district and Nezapir sector of the neighbouring Haveli district.

In Islamabad, a senior official of the Foreign Office summoned India’s Deputy High Commissioner J.P. Singh to lodge a protest over the killings.

According to a Foreign Office statement, its director general for South Asia, Dr Mohammad Faisal, condemned the continuing ceasefire violations along the LoC and handed over a protest note to Mr Singh.

The Indian shelling began in the Abbaspur sector at about 7am “without any provocation” and continued for about two hours, said Qazi Arsalan, an official at the Abbaspur police station.

As a result, Rashida Begum, a 55-year-old widow of a police constable, lost her life in Taroti Bala Galli village, while Abdul Aziz Sheikh, a retired employee of the education department, was injured in Taroti village, he said.

A vehicle parked in Taroti was damaged in the shelling, he added.

Indian official summoned to FO, given protest note

In the Nezapir sector, heavy shelling began at about 8.50am, which left Mohammad Hanif, 52, dead, and Shafqat Hussain, 35, Khadija Bibi, 44, Mohammad Ismail, 40, and Rafia Bibi, 15, injured in Kairni village, police official Ishfaq Ahmed told Dawn from Forward Kahuta, the district headquarters of Haveli.

The injured were admitted to a military-run health facility in Forward Kahuta.

The Inter-Services Public Relations, the Pakistan Army’s media wing, did not issue any press release regarding the shelling. However, residents claimed that Pakistani troops responded to the Indian shelling in a befitting manner.

Azad Kashmir’s Senior Minister Chaudhry Tariq Farooq condemned the shelling, regretting that Indian army’s conduct reflected belligerence as well as blatant disregard for its own commitments.

“Despite agreeing to revive the spirit of the 2003 ceasefire agreement, Indian troops are constantly targeting the innocent civilian populations on our side of the LoC, which warrants serious notice by the United Nations and the international community,” he said in a brief statement.

The minister was referring to a recent conference of military officials from Pakistan and India in New Delhi, where the loss of innocent lives as a result of the ceasefire violations was also discussed, with special emphasis on efforts to revive the spirit of the 2003 agreement between the two sides.

The heavily-militarised LoC has frequently been witnessing ceasefire violations for more than a year now, leading mostly to civilian casualties.

According to official sources, the latest casualties have pushed the death toll from Indian shelling in Azad Kashmir since January to 44, while the number of injured has swelled to 253.

Trade activities

Due to the fresh spate of cross-border shelling in Poonch division, intra-Kashmir trade from Tetrinote-Chakan da Bagh crossing point was put off on Friday.

The barter trade, which is conducted from Tuesday to Friday every week from this point, had resumed only recently after remaining suspended for four months due to the frequent ceasefire violations across the restive LoC in Haveli and Poonch districts.

According to sources, nine trucks were ready at Tetrinote terminal and 13 at Chakan da Bagh terminal to ferry mercantile goods to the opposite sides on Friday. But as the LoC gate on the India-held side was not opened until 2.45pm, exchange of goods was suspended.

However, trade activity took place as per routine from the Chakothi-Uri crossing point in Muzaffarabad division without any disturbance, the sources said.

Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2017