MUZAFFARABAD: Two Indian soldiers were killed when Pakistani troops shelled an Indian army post across the Line of Control (LoC) from where an unprovoked ceasefire violation left a boy dead in the Kotli district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Monday.

“Pakistan Army troops neutralised an Indian post which targeted a minor along the LoC and as a result two Indian soldiers were killed,” said the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) in a brief statement.

Earlier in a tweet, ISPR chief Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor said that the boy, Ayan, was killed in the Janjot village.

“Indian brutality takes life of an eight-year-old boy. Use of pellet-guns in Indian occupied Kashmir (IOK) and targeting of innocent unarmed civilians across [the] LOC exposes true Indian face,” he tweeted.

Unprovoked firing from across LoC claims eight-year-old boy’s life

The tweet included a photograph of the deceased.

The Janjot Bahadar village lies right on the heavily militarised LoC in Khuiratta sector of Kotli district.

Abid Hussain, an official at Khuiratta police station, told Dawn via telephone that Ayan Zahid, son of Chaudhry Muhammad Zahid, was in the courtyard of his house when a bullet fired from across the LoC hit him in the head at about 5pm.

He succumbed to the wound on his way to the tehsil headquarters hospital, the official added.

Condemning the incident, AJK’s senior minister Chaudhry Tariq Farooq said: “Indian troops have been resorting to ceasefire violations across the LoC without any let-up. Trigger-happy Indian soldiers are shamelessly targeting unarmed and innocent citizens in a clear manifestation of their callousness, cruelty and sheer disregard to humanity, humanitarian values and professionalism.”

On Thursday, Indian troops hit a school van in another highly vulnerable village in a similar fashion, killing its 28-year-old driver on the spot.

In a tit-for-tat response, the Pakistan Army destroyed an army post across the LoC, killing five Indian soldiers.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2018