MUZAFFARABAD: Seven persons, including two women and an infant, were injured when Indian troops shelled different villages of Azad Jammu and Kashmir from across the Line of Control (LoC) on the second consecutive day on Monday, officials said.

“Indian troops resu­m­­ed shelling at about 6.10am in the morning, targeting Pakistan Army posts as well as civilian populations in Dharra, Batol, Polas, Kakota and Chirikot,” said Taskheer Awan, additional deputy commissioner (general) in Abbaspur in Poonch district.

He identified the inju­red as Kabir Hus-sain Ma­­g­ray, 42; Rabia, 25; Abdul Aziz, 70; Mohammad Rasheed, 45; Mohammad Tayyab, 28; Nadia and one-year-old Ahad Shafaat. They were taken to Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan Hospital in Rawalakot, where the condition of two of them was stated to be critical.

In a related incident, a 70-year-old cardiac pat­ient, identified as Afsar Jan, died from panic when a shell landed in the courtyard of her house in Polas village. The house was badly damaged.

Poonch Deputy Commissioner Raja Tahir Mumtaz told Dawn that he had ordered closure of all vulnerable educational institutions along the LoC within his jurisdiction to avert any casualty in the face of “unprovoked and sudden” shelling by Indian troops.

He said he had dispa­tched two additional am­­b­ulances to Abbas­pur, be­­si­des ensuring presence of doctors and paramedics in all health facilities along the dividing line.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2017