MUZAFFARABAD: A teenager was killed and his younger sibling was critically injured in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Thursday after Indian troops opened fire from across the Line of Control (LoC), officials said.

The casualties occurred in Akhori village in Nezapir sector of Haveli district, said Zubair Gillani, a police official in district headquarters Forward Kahuta.

He identified the deceased as Tahir, 15, and the injured as Tahira, 12, children of Mohammad Hafeez, a local farmer from Gujjar tribe.

According to Mohammad Zaheer, district disaster management officer in Haveli, Indian troops resorted to ceasefire violations at about 7am “without any provocation”.

The firing during which they mostly used small arms and occasionally mortar shells continued till 10:30am, he said.

The victims were standing along the boundary wall of their house, unmindful of the savagery unleashed by Indian troops along the LoC, when a mortar shell landed in the courtyard, Mr Zaheer said.

Several fragments of the shell pierced the chest of the boy leaving him dead on the spot while the girl was critically injured after a splinter crossed through her skull, damaging her brain, he added.

Mr Zaheer said the injured girl was taken to the military-run health facility in Forward Kahuta at about 12 noon from where she was referred to Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan Hospital, Rawalakot, in the Poonch district after two hours.

However, from Rawalakot she was sent to Islamabad, owing to her critical condition.

Grieving for the loss of the lives of innocent Kashmiris at the hands of Indian troops on both sides of the divide, AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider tweeted: “Kashmiris [are] being killed by Indian army on both sides of [the] LoC. Is this the fate of Kashmiris?”

According to Syed Shahid Mohyiddin Qadri, chief of the State Disaster Management Authority, the latest casualties have pushed the death toll in ceasefire violations by Indian army in the current year to 14.

Apart from civilian casualties, five army personnel have also lost their lives along the LoC in the current year, he said.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2019