Heavy shelling on LoC, Afghan border

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan on Sunday came under heavy shelling from the Indian and Afghan sides, injuring five women and a solider of Pakistan Army.

A tit-for-tat response from the Pakistani security forces silenced the enemy guns. The Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said two girls and two women were injured by the unprovoked Indian firing on a civilian house in the Khoi Ratta area along the Line of Control (LoC) in Azad Kashmir.

“The injured women were evacuated by the army to a nearby hospital,” the statement said. Pakistan and India had declared ceasefire along the LoC and working boundary in 2003. The Pakistan Army soldier was injured when terrorists opened fire from across the border in Mangrotai, South Waziristan Agency (SWA).

According to the military media wing, the injured soldier was evacuated by a copter to a medical facility in Wana. Meanwhile, the Afghan Foreign Office on Sunday summoned Pakistan’s Ambassador Syed Abrar Hussain and complained that due to the closing of the Pak-Afghan border people were facing difficulties.

The Afghan officials charged that Pakistan was shelling across the border.  Setting the record straight, the Pakistani ambassador told the Afghan officials that the Pakistani posts were being attacked and the army was only retaliating.

He said Pakistan wanted peace in Afghanistan and had initiated Operation Raddul Fasaad. “To ensure peace, closing the border was imperative,” he said. On Feb 24, the Pakistan Army conducted targeted strikes across the Afghan border, killing two high-profile terrorists affiliated with the terrorist outfit Jamaat-ul-Ahrar.

Those killed included Wajihullah alias Ahrar, who was sponsored by a hostile intelligence agency for terrorist activities in Pakistan, security sources said.  He was the mastermind of the recent suicide attack in Lahore and earlier incidents in Punjab.

Earlier, Pakistan was hit by five terrorist attacks in a week. In the wake of terrorist attacks, the Pakistan-Afghan border was shut down and an operation was initiated to eliminate terrorism.