MUZAFFARABAD: Ind­ian troops resorted to mortar shelling of civilian population in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Thursday, martyring two people and injuring another two, officials said.

The casualties occurred in the lower belt of the Neelum Valley, a day after Indian Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat said the situation along the Line of Control (LoC) could escalate anytime.

“Earlier, it was [military] post to post firing between the two sides, but after 3:30pm, Indian troops started lobbing shells on civilian populated areas,” said Akhtar Ayub, a disaster management officer in Athmuqam, district headquarters of the Neelum Valley.

According to him, some two to three mortar shells fell in Lesva village, injuring Sheharyar Naseer, 12, Naveed Gohar, 28, and his sister Komal Gohar, 14.

All three were taken to a nearby military-run health facility where Sheharyar died while Naveed lost his battle for life on way to Muzaffarabad, he said.

A 15-year-old boy, Hammad Ahmed, was injured in Barian village. He was under treatment in district headquarters hospital Athmuqam, Mr Ayub said.

A police official in the area told Dawn that due to shelling, movement of vehicles on the main road was stopped to avert further losses.

However, traffic was allow­ed to move after sunset, he said.

Strongly condemning the Indian shelling, AJK’s senior minister Chaudhry Tariq Farooq said that Gen Rawat had already uncovered New Delhi’s nefarious plan to escalate tensions across the LoC to divert attention from the situation in occupied Jammu and Kashmir as well as in India that had been experiencing mass scale protests over controversial citizenship law.

“The world community in general and the UN in particular should latch on to the inflammatory and diabolical statements by the bloodthirsty warmongers in New Delhi. Under the cover of escalations along the LoC they seem out to crank up butchery in occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” Mr Farooq warned in a tweet.

On Monday, a teenage boy was killed and two civilians were injured in Indian shelling in Leepa Valley.

According to Syed Shahid Mohyiddin Qadri, a senior AJK government official, the death toll in current year’s ceasefire violations by Indian troops had swelled to 59.

According to Inter-Services Public Relations, Indian army resorted to unprovoked firing in Jura Sector along the LoC in which two innocent citizens lost their lives and another two, including a woman, got injured.

Pakistan Army troops effectively responded to target the Indian post that was firing on civilian population. In subsequent exchange of fire between the posts, three Pakistan Army soldiers were injured. The Indian post was damaged and Indians were seen evacuating their casualties, it added.

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2019