COAS visits LoC, lauds response to Indian violations

ISPR says any misadventure by India to be a miscalculation and be responded with full force; Indian firing across LoC kills two, injures eight

RAWALPINDI: Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa visited troops deployed along the Line of Control in Nikial Sector, says an ISPR press release. 

He was briefed on the situation by a local commander. The COAS appreciated high state of operational readiness, effective response to Indian ceasefire violations and high morale of troops. 

The army chief also visited parents of shaheed Lieutenant Khawar at his home. Khawar embraced shahadat during an operation at Bannu. The COAS hailed supreme sacrifice of the officer and his family for the motherland. 

Commander Rawalpindi Corps Lieutenant General Nadeem Raza accompanied the COAS.

Meanwhile, in a separate press release the ISPR said: “Indian Army has been targeting innocent civilians on both sides of Line of Control in recent past. Any misadventure by Indian Army across Line of Control will be a miscalculation, shall be responded with full force and could lead to unintended consequences.”

Agencies add: Heavy shelling killed two people, including a teenager, in Indian held Kashmir on Saturday, an official said, in the latest deadly skirmish along the heavily militarised Line of Control.

The victims, a 13-year-old girl and a 51-year-old man, were killed when mortar bombs hit parts of Rajouri district on the Indian side of the LoC.

"Two people have been killed by mortar shells," Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, deputy commissioner of Rajouri, told AFP, adding three others were injured.

Defence spokesman, Manish Mehta, blamed Pakistan´s army for initiating "indiscriminate firing" from 07:15 am (local time) Saturday.

"The Indian Army posts are retaliating strongly and effectively. The firing is presently on," Mehta said in a statement.

Scores of families have reportedly migrated to safer places from five villages near the LoC, while authorities have called for an indefinite shutdown of all schools in three Rajouri towns.

The latest incident comes only days after two people were killed in cross-border firing in Kashmir, one on each side of India and Pakistan.

According to Reuters an official in Azad Kashmir said Pakistan had responded to "unprovoked" Indian firing. Eight people, five of them women, were injured in the Indian firing on AJK areas, said Raja Azhar Iqbal, an official in AJK information department.

After Nakiyal Sector, the Indian troops targeted civilian localities in Baroh Sector where the exchange of fire was continuing till late in the evening.

According to the Inter Services Public Relations, Pakistani troops were aggressively engaging the Indians firing on civilians.

Earlier in the day, Indian troops committed ceasefire violations at LoC in Karela, Kotkoterra, Khuiratta, Sabzkot, Baroh, Tandar and Khanjar sectors.

Pakistani troops befittingly responded to the Indian unprovoked firing.

Those, who were injured, have been identified as Haji Muhammad Younis son of Abdul Aziz, Rehana Bibi wife of Muhammad Asif and Samina Begum wife of Tufail Mughal from Kotktora Sector while from Baroh Sector were Zamurd Begum (58), Shazia Parveen (35) and Muhammad Inzimam (17).