Pakistan summons Indian envoy over ceasefire violations along LoC, WB

• India firing in Chahi Samahni sector kills a man, injures several schoolgirls
• Firing along Sialkot Working Boundary disrupts routine life as emergency is declared in the district

ISLAMABAD: Taking notice of Indian troops’ unprovoked firing and shelling along the Line of Control (LoC) and Sialkot’s Working Boundary that killed three people over the last two days, Pakistan Foreign Office on Friday summoned India’s Deputy High Commissioner JP Singh to record protest over the violation of the ceasefire agreement.

The Indian envoy was also summoned on Thursday on the first day of Sialkot ceasefire violation.

ONE KASHMIRI KILLED ALONG THE LOC: A man was killed and several girls were injured in Bhimber district of Azad Jammu Kashmir on Friday after Indian troops resorted to “unprovoked” shelling from across the LoC.

Bhimber Deputy Commissioner Chaudhry Guftaar said, “Ghulam Nabi, 60, son of Noor Muhammad, was in his home in Naali village of Barnala sector along the LoC when he was hit by a splinter from a mortar shell,” adding that “in Samahni sector of the same district, 10-year old girl Chaman Niaz, a five-grader, was injured on her way to the school in Nihala Chahi village.”

The media reports also mentioned injuries to several others girls. According to the reports, only Niaz was admitted to the district headquarters hospital in Bhimber. However, later she too was stated to be in a stable condition.

INDIA VIOLATES WORKING BOUNDARY AGREEMENT AGAIN: Separately, Indian troops’ intermittent firing along the Working Boundary near Sialkot entered the second day, as the troops resorted to firing in Kundan Pur, Thathi, and other sectors of Sialkot. However, no casualties or injuries were reported as of yet.

EMERGENCY IN SIALKOT DISTRICT: The continued shelling’s second day had disrupted the lives of the citizens in Sialkot. Deputy Commissioner Dr Farrukh Naveed said that the district administration has closed all government and private schools, situated in villages along the Working Boundary, in the wake of unprovoked and intensive shelling by Indian forces.

The DC said the administration had declared an emergency in the district following the shelling. He also visited the Sialkot CMH on Friday and inquired about the health of the victims, being treated there.

On Thursday, Pakistan had also recorded a protest with the Indian deputy high commissioner after cross-border firing claimed the lives of two women and wounded five others along the Working Boundary in Sialkot’s Chaprar sector between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, with the Foreign Office stating that India’s confrontational attitude may lead to a “strategic miscalculation”.

According to a statement released by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Thursday, Indian forces had continued their “unprovoked” ceasefire violations and “targeted civilian population along Working Boundary in Kundan Pur village, Chaprar, Sialkot sector overnight”. As a result of the firing, two women were killed and five civilians, including three women, were injured.

The FO had summoned the Indian deputy high commissioner and served a demarche while lodging a protest against the casualties resulting from the ceasefire violation by the Indian forces.

According to the FO, Indian forces have committed more than 70 ceasefire violations along the LoC and WB in 2018, in which at least three civilians and four soldiers have lost their lives, and 10 people have been injured.

Ceasefire violations are a frequent feature along the LoC and WB despite the leadership of Pakistan Rangers and India’s Border Security Forces agreeing in November 2017 that the “spirit” of the 2003 Ceasefire Agreement must be revived to protect innocent lives.

Until June last year, unprovoked firing by Indian security forces from across the Line of Control and at the Sialkot Working Boundary had left 832 people dead, 3,000 injured and 3,300 houses damaged, according to Director General of the Disaster Management Authority Zaheeruddin Qureshi.