Pakistan Army rejects Indian claims of killing two soldiers

• ISPR statement says Pakistan Army shall never disrespect a soldier even Indian

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Monday rejected Indian Army’s claims that Pakistani soldiers killed two Indian soldiers on the Line of Control (LoC) and mutilated their bodies.

“Pakistan Army did not commit any ceasefire violation on the Line of Control or a BAT (Border Action Team) action in Buttal sector as alleged by India,” the ISPR statement said. “Indian blame of mutilating Indian soldiers’ bodies are also false,” it said.

In response to the allegations, the statement said that the Pakistan Army was a highly professional force and shall never disrespect a soldier even Indian. On Monday, the Indian Army accused the Border Action Team (BAT) of ‘mutilating bodies’ of two of their soldiers on two forward posts along the Line of Control in Krishna Ghati sector in Poonch, a district in the Indian-held Kashmir.

The claim from the Indian side has come via a tweet from a verified account of the Indian Army’s Additional Directorate General of the Public Information. In a statement, India’s Northern Army Command claimed that the Pakistan Army carried out ‘unprovoked rocket and mortar firing’ on two forward posts and a BAT action on a patrol operating in between the posts.

The dead soldiers have been identified as head constable Prem Sagar of 200th Battalion of the Border Security Force (BSF) and naib subedar Paramjeet Singh of 22 Sikh Regiment of the army. “Another constable from the BSF also sustained injury, but is out of danger,” a BSF spokesman said.

In Islamabad, Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said in a statement that the Pakistan Army did not commit any ceasefire violation on the Line of Control in Jammu Kashmir as alleged by India. “Indian blame of mutilating Indian soldiers at Line of Control is also false,” he said.

In the first week of April, UN secretary general’s spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said at a regular briefing in New York that the United Nations Military Observer Group is investigating the violations of ceasefire across the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu Kashmir. “We’ve seen the alleged ceasefire violations over the Line of Control, which are currently being investigated by the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP),” he said.

“We continue to underline the need for the parties to find a peaceful solution through engagement and dialogue,” he said. “We will share when the UNMOGIP presents its report on the alleged incidents,” he said, but ignored a reporter’s claim that India was pressuring the UNMOGIP not to make a report.