MUZAFFARABAD: An ex-serviceman lost his life and his teenage daughter and three other civilians were injured in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Saturday in “indiscriminate and unprovoked” shelling by Indian troops from across the restive Line of Control (LoC), officials said.

The casualties occurred in Abbaspur tehsil of Poonch district as Indian troops from across the LoC resorted to heavy shelling, using mortar and artillery, at about 3pm, the officials said, adding shelling continued till evening.

Pakistani Army refers to this area as Chirikot sector, which also extends to the neighbouring Haveli district.

“Indian troops resorted to unprovoked ceasefire violation along [the] LoC in Chirikot sector, targeting civilian population with artillery and mortar fire,” said the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), the army’s media affairs wing, in a statement.

“Pakistan army troops responded effectively targeting Indian post which initiated fire,” it added.

Bombardment of defenceless civilian population warrants international condemnation, says AJK PM

The ISPR said that an innocent citizen, Mir Mohammad, embraced martyrdom while a woman suffered injuries.

However, local officials put the number of injured at four. Qazi Arsalan, an official in Abbaspur police station, told Dawn that 65-year-old Mir Mohammad, son of Bagga Khan, a retired havildar, died on the spot when a mortar shell landed in his house in Polas Kakuta village.

His 17-year-old daughter Ismat Naz was seriously injured.

The official said that Khadija Begum, 45, wife of Abdul Hafeez, a shopkeeper, was also seriously injured in the same village.

According to him, Indian troops also targeted a Suzuki van near Chirikot village while it was on its way to the town of Abbaspur with three persons on board, leaving two of them injured.

The injured were identified as Haseeb Farooq, 22, son of Chaudhry Mohammad Farooq, and Nazarat, 20, son of Mohammad Aziz, both residents of Dharriyan village in the Abbaspur area.

Quoting the third rider who escaped unhurt, Mr Arsalan said around a dozen shells landed on different sides of their van, forcing them to abandon it and rush towards safety in the adjacent jungle. Nevertheless, two of them were hit by splinters from shells while trying to hide behind trees.

Saira Yousuf Chughtai, an Abbaspur-based journalist, told Dawn that the enemy shelling was indiscriminate, causing panic among the residents of the highly vulnerable areas along the LoC.

“I am afraid there might be more casualties but since there is no communication link with the affected villages, complete information of losses is yet to reach us,” she said.

Expressing grief over the civilian casualties, AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider said bombardment of defenceless civilian population was an extremely condemnable crime. “This is the height of cowardice on the part of Indian Army to deliberately pound innocent and unarmed civilians and warrants immediate international condemnation,” he said in a statement.

Mr Haider warned that such incidents might trigger a war between the nuclear armed neighbours, repercussions of which would be unbearable not only for the subcontinent but the whole world as well. “It’s high time the United Nations and big powers rein in India and force her to implement the Security Council resolutions on Kashmir in the interest of regional and global peace.”

Officials say ceasefire violations by India, in a serious breach of a truce agreement signed in Nov 2003, are constantly causing civilian casualties in different areas of AJK.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2020