ISLAMABAD: Pakistan lodged a strong protest with India by summoning its top diplomat to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs over the unprovoked ceasefire violations by Indian occupation forces along the Line of Control (LoC) on Sunday that resulted in serious injuries to 11 innocent civilians.
Due to indiscriminate and unprovoked firing by the Indian occupation forces in Khuiratta Sector of the LoC, the Foreign Office said that 55-year-old Muhammad Haneef son of Muhammad Hussain, five-year-old Shangur daughter of Muhammad Irfan, five-year-old Summan daughter of Muhammad Ajaib, 20-year-old Aruj daughter of Muhammad Adnan, 35-year-old Zabina wife of Muhammad Ajaib, 65-year-old Sarwar Jan wife of Muhammad Hussain, 35-year-old Sajida Kausar wife of Muhammad Irfan, 10-year-old Eraj daughter of Sadiq, 50-year-old Khursheed Begum wife of Sub Mehmood Shaheed, 7-year-old Hurrain Irfan daughter Muhammad Irfan, and nine-year-old Mubeen son of Abdul Hameed, residents of Jijot Bahadar village, sustained serious injuries.
"The Indian occupation forces along the LoC and the Working Boundary (WB) have been continuously targeting civilian populated areas with artillery fire, heavy-caliber mortars and automatic weapons," the Foreign Office stated in a statement.
This year, it added that India had committed more than 2,820 ceasefire violations to date, resulting in 26 shahadats and serious injuries to 245 innocent civilians.
Condemning the deplorable targeting of innocent civilians by the Indian occupation forces, it was underscored that such senseless acts are in clear violation of the 2003 Ceasefire Understanding, and are also against all established humanitarian norms and professional military conduct.
"These egregious violations of international law reflect consistent Indian attempts to escalate the situation along the LoC and are a threat to regional peace and security. It was added that by raising tensions along the LoC and the WB, India cannot divert attention from the grave human rights situation in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJK)," it added. It further stated that the Indian side was called upon 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.
The Indian side was also urged 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, it added.
In a statement, AJK President Sardar Masood Khan stressed the UN military observers deployed on both sides of the LoC to immediately inform the UN Secretary-General António Guterres and permanent members of the UN Security Council about the latest situation prevailing at the LoC and the violations of ceasefire by the Indian troops. Strongly condemning firing by the Indian troops at a wedding function in Khuiratta sector of the LoC in which 11 members of the same family including six women, two minor girls, and a boy were injured, he said this was the height of barbarity and naked aggression committed by the Indian Army.
The AJK president said that targeting of civilians including women and children at the hands of Indian troops should be a matter of grave concerns for the international community, particularly the international human rights organisations.
He added that the Indian Army was targeting the defenceless citizens of Azad Kashmir particularly women and children in order to divert the attention of the international community from state terrorism and flagrant human rights violations by the Indian troops deployed in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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