Pakistan asks UN to probe ceasefire violations by India

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Army on Friday asked the United Nations Military Observers Group on India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to investigate the firing and shelling by Indian troops on its side of Kashmir which had killed five people this week.
The flare-up between the two countries comes days after their prime ministers met in Russia in an apparent sign of a thaw in relations.
The Pakistan Army in a statement said that it had informed the United Nations Military Observers Group on India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) about the ceasefire violations and asked them to investigate.
It said it had “highlighted the Indians’ use of heavy mortars and machine guns on (the) civil population” living along the Line of Control (LoC).
It said that five civilians were killed and five others were wounded during the past two days as a direct result of the Indian firing and shelling.
The UNMOGIP was set up to monitor the ceasefire violations by India and Pakistan but the watchdog does not conduct criminal investigations.
On Thursday, Pakistan protested to the Indian envoy in Islamabad over the firing. It also summoned the Indian ambassador after a “spy drone” was shot down in disputed Kashmir. India denied it was their drone.
For its part, India protested to Pakistan over the firing, a government source said. The complaint was registered after India claimed one of its civilians was killed during gunfire near the border in Jammu’s Akhnoor sector on Wednesday, the source said.
The two countries control part of Kashmir, but claim the territory in full and have fought two wars over it. They agreed on a border ceasefire in 2003, which has largely held, though violations are regularly reported from both the sides.
Last Friday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi accepted an invitation from his counterpart Nawaz Sharif to visit Pakistan next year, raising hopes of an improvement in perennially difficult relations.
After months of stalemate and recriminations, Modi and Sharif spoke for about an hour while visiting Russia for a regional summit. It will be the first time that Modi — who has a reputation as a hardline nationalist — has travelled to Pakistan since coming to power.