MUZAFFARABAD: The Pakistan Army shot down another Indian spy drone along the restive Line of Control (LoC) in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on a second consecutive day on Wednesday, the army’s media affairs wing said.

“Pakistan Army troops shot down another Indian spy quadcopter today in Satwal Sector on Line of Control,” tweeted Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor, director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) at 9:12pm.

Satwal sector is located in Hajira, a subdivision in AJK’s Poonch division, which has frequently witnessed ceasefire violations by Indian army.

The ISPR chief’s tweet included a picture of the spy drone but there were no further details.

On Tuesday, army shooters had downed a similar reconnaissance drone along the LoC in Bagh sector, which is also located in Poonch division.

Since July 2015, five spy drones have been shot down by the Pakistan army in different areas of AJK. The Indian military uses these drones for aerial photography of Pakistani posts along the LoC as part of its intelligence gathering operations and target selection before carrying out cross-LoC shelling.

Civil and military sources say that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Indian government is purposefully escalating tensions along the LoC to exploit anti-Pakistan sentiment at home for political mileage ahead of general elections.

Talking to reporters at the Central Press Club in the same context, earlier in the day, AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider pointed out that India had been creating a “warlike situation” along the LoC by killing and injuring innocent civilians through indiscriminate firing and shelling.

“Narendra Modi will take two [or] three ghastly steps ahead of general elections after his party’s defeat in five states. One, he would launch an organised hatred campaign against Indian Muslims, such as Rath Yatra or Ram Janambhoomi etc, and second he would intensify tensions and ceasefire violations along the LoC,” he said.

Mr Haider said sending spy drones from across the LoC were part of India’s nefarious designs to provoke Pakistan for domestic political gains.

The heavily militarised LoC that divides the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan has been constantly witnessing skirmishes and artillery duels between the rival armies, in a serious breach of a ceasefire agreement signed by them in Nov 2003.

In 2018, 28 civilians lost their lives along the LoC in AJK while another eight were killed along the Working Boundary in Punjab in as many as 2,350 ceasefire violations by Indian army.

On Tuesday, Director General (South Asia and Saarc) of the Foreign Office, Dr Mohammad Faisal, had summoned India’s Acting Deputy High Commissioner and condemned the latest unprovoked ceasefire violation by the Indian army along the LoC that killed and injured innocent civilians in Neelum Valley.

The deliberate targeting of civilian populated areas was indeed deplorable and contrary to human dignity, international human rights and humanitarian laws, he told the Indian envoy. “The ceasefire violations by India are a threat to regional peace and security and may lead to a strategic miscalculation,” he warned.

Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2019