Woman martyred, girl hurt in Indian firing on LoC

RAWALPINDI: A woman was martyred and an eight-year old girl wounded as the Indian army troops initiated Unprovoked Ceasefire Violations (CFVs) in Jandrot and Khuiratta sectors along LoC deliberately targeting civilian population on Monday morning. Due to indiscriminate fire of automatics and rockets, a 36 year old woman, Yasmeen, resident of village Red embraced Shahadat while an eight years old innocent girl, Adeeba Zaheer, resident of village Mohra Chattar sustained serious injuries. Injured child has been evacuated and being provided with medical care.

According to Director General ISPR Major Babar Iftikhar the Indian troops since start of the ongoing year, had committed around 850 CFVs on LoC and intentionally targeted the civilian population in Azad Kashmir. “As a result an innocent child and a woman were martyred while 32 including eight women and eight children were injured,” he said.

He said Indian troops in order to protect their gun position from where they resort to shelling, use civilian population in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) as human shield.

He said that designs of extremist RSS have proved that India was promoting Hinduvta and Saffronizm and wave of hatred and brutalities which started from IOK had spread to their whole country.

Meanwhile, Indian Charge d Affaires Gaurav Ahluwalia was summoned by Director General (South Asia & Saarc) Zahid Hafeez Chaudhry to register Pakistan s strong protest over the ceasefire violations by the Indian occupation forces along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jandrot and Khuiratta Sector in the morning.

Owing to indiscriminate and unprovoked firing by the Indian occupation forces in Jandrot sector, 36-year-old innocent Yasmeen Sheraz, wife of Sheraz, resident of Red village, embraced Shahadat (martyrdom), whereas, nine-year innocent Ateba Zaher daughter of Zaher Ahmed, resident of Mohra Chattar village, sustained serious injuries in Khuiratta Sector, a Foreign Office press release said.

The Indian occupation forces along the LoC and the Working Boundary (WB) have continuously been targeting civilian populated areas with artillery fire, heavy-caliber mortars and automatic weapons.

This year, India has committed 882 ceasefire violations. Condemning the targeting of innocent civilians by the Indian occupation forces, the DG (SA & Saarc) underscored that such senseless acts, in clear violation of the 2003 Ceasefire Understanding and complete disregard for international human rights and international norms, further vitiated the tense atmosphere along the LoC and were a threat to regional peace and security.

He added that by raising tensions along the LoC and the WB, India could not divert attention from the grave human rights situation in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K).

The DG (SA & Saarc) called upon the Indian side to respect the 2003 Ceasefire Understanding; investigate this and other such incidents of deliberate ceasefire violations and maintain peace along the LoC and the WB.

He also urged the Indian side to allow the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to play its mandated role as per the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions.