Ceasefire violations: Pakistan lodges strong protest with India

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Saturday summoned a senior Indian diplomat to register strong protest against the ceasefire violations by Indian armed forces along the Line of Control (LoC), a Foreign Office statement said.

According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), a 21-year-old woman had sustained serious injuries and was evacuated to a nearby medical facility in Azad Kashmir due to unprovoked shelling across the LoC by the Indian border forces.

“A senior diplomat from the High Commission of India was summoned to the FO today to register Pakistan’s strong protest at the ceasefire violations by Indian occupation forces along the Line of Control, resulting in serious injuries to an innocent civilian woman,” the FO statement said.

Pakistan “condemned the targeting of innocent civilians” and underscored that “senseless” Indian acts further vitiate the tense atmosphere along the LoC and pose a “threat” to regional peace and stability.

“It was also emphasised that by raising tensions along the LoC and the Working Boundary (WB), India cannot divert attention from the worsening human rights situation in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K).”

The demarche handedover to the high commission official called upon the “Indian side to respect the 2003 Ceasefire Understanding; investigate this and other incidents of deliberate ceasefire violations and maintain peace along the LoC and the WB.”

New Delhi was also urged to let the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan to play its mandated role as per the United Nations Security Council Resolutions.