MUZAFFARABAD: Three members of the United Nations Military Observers Group for India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) had a close call along the Line of Control (LoC) in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Wednesday, after Indian troops shot at and injured two locals — who were briefing the UN observers on the situation in the area, officials and residents said.

The incident took place at noon in the Abbaspur sector of Poonch district where the UN observers had arrived in white vehicles with the blue UN flags hoisted on top, Qazi Arslan, a police official in Abbaspur, told Dawn.

“The UN observers were interacting with the locals in Polas village when suddenly Indian troops resorted to firing from across the LoC without any provocation,” he said.

“The firing left Sardar Saghir and Muhammad Azam Qureshi, residents of Polas and Taroti villages, respectively, injured,” he added. The injured were rushed to the nearest health facility.

As word spread, shopkeepers in Abbaspur pulled their shutters down while a demonstration was staged by the locals to condemn the incident.

A few demonstrators criticised the UN observers for “abandoning the victims” instead of taking them to a health facility in their vehicles.

However, Mr Arslan explained that the UN observers were in a state of shock themselves, as they did not expect firing from the Indian side, while they were there.

He said that the UN observers had already passed a “hotline message” to the Indian authorities regarding their visit to the LoC.

Mr Arslan said that the injured men were taken to Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahayan Hospital in Rawalakot for further treatment where the UN observers visited them and then left for the district headquarters in Poonch to record their statements.

Saira Yousuf, an Abbaspur-based journalist, appreciated the UN observers for visiting the injured in the hospital.

“The UN officials travel under a set protocol and we cannot and should not blame them. The remarks against them by some of the demonstrators were the outcome of some serious misunderstanding,” she said while talking to Dawn over the phone.

Civil society activist Mushtaq said this incident should serve as an eye-opener for the UN because today they have seen for themselves how brazenly Indian troops target civilians without any provocation.

Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) did not issue any statement on the incident. The heavily militarised LoC has been witnessing ceasefire violations in a serious breach of the November 2003 agreement signed by both armies, particularly after September 2016, when an Indian army base in Uri was attacked by suspected militants, leaving 18 Indian soldiers dead. In May last year, two UN observers had a narrow escape in AJK’s Bhimber district, when their vehicle was allegedly targeted by Indian troops from across the LoC.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2018