MUZAFFARABAD: A man was martyred and his wife injured in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Sunday due to Indian firing from across the Line of Control (LoC), police said.

A police official told Dawn from Forward Kahuta, the headquarters of Haveli district, Indian army resorted to ceasefire violations using “small and heavy arms” in Rakhchikri sector at about 7am, which continued over the next three hours.

Mohammad Sarwar, 55, and his wife Gulab Jan, 47, were hit by the splinters of a mortar shell that landed on the premises of their house in Kairni village, leaving the former dead on the spot and the latter injured, he said.

The official said that as many as 10 cattle heads of the victim family were also hit by the shelling, some of which were slaughtered by the villagers while others died.

On Oct 29, a woman and a man, identified as Rukhsana Dar and Rehan Rathore, were injured in Indian shelling in the same village.

According to the official, as many as 22 civilians have lost their lives in the current year in different areas of AJK while another 195 have sustained injuries due to ceasefire violations by the Indian army.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2020