India busy in Kashmir abuses as world battles virus: Qureshi

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said as the world is busy battling the coronavirus, India is committing injustices in occupied Kashmir after Indian troops’ firing across the Line of Control (LoC) left six Pakistani civilians — among them two teenage girls — seriously injured.

“India is targeting the civilian populations on this side of the LoC,” Qureshi told reporters on Saturday following a meeting at the Foreign Office. “India wants to turn occupied Kashmir into a minority state and has been consistently targeting civilians on the Pakistani side of the border,” he added, according to Geo News.

Qureshi also lamented India’s negative attitude to a proposed Saarc conference on the coronavirus. “India is bent on persecuting minorities despite challenges like the coronavirus to the economy,” he said.

He was reacting to Indian ceasefire violations which took place in a span of 24 hours. In a series of tweets, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Maj-Gen Babar Iftikhar said Indian Army troops in their continued ceasefire violations along the LoC “have deliberately targeted the civilian population in Nikial sector and seriously injured two people including an eighteen year old girl”.

He added: “Indian Army resorted to unprovoked fire in Nikial sector deliberately targeting civilian population. CFVs being responded befittingly by Pak army troops.”

He went on to mention that in the last 24 hours around six citizens were injured and evacuated to nearby health facilities for necessary medical care. In an earlier tweet, the DG ISPR said Indian Army troops’ unprovoked ceasefire violations with artillery and heavy mortars took place in the Sharda, Dhudnial and Shahkot sectors along the LoC.

“Due to Indian Army’s indiscriminate fire of heavy weapons at Bessan Wali and Chhari villages, four innocent civilians including a 15 year old girl sustained serious injuries,” he said.

“Pakistan Army troops responded effectively with matching calibre and targeted those Indian Army posts which initiated fire,” Maj-Gen Iftikhar added.

In 2020, the Indian army committed 708 ceasefire violations so far, in which two citizens embraced martyrdom while 42 sustained injuries.