UN observers narrowly escape Indian firing across LoC

A team of the United Nations Military Observers Mission for India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), comprising of three members, got a first-hand experience of Indian atrocities along the Line of Control (LoC) in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Wednesday, after Indian forces shot and critically injured two locals who were informing them about ceasefire violations in the area, officials said.

Abbaspur police official Qazi Arslan, while talking to an English daily newspaper, said that the attack occurred when the UN observers reached Abbaspur sector in Poonch district at noon. He said the UN team had reached the area in two official white vehicles that also carried the symbolic blue UN flags.

“The UN team was gathering information from locals in Polas village about Indian ceasefire violations when Indian troops started firing from across the volatile border located one kilometre away from where the observers were present,” Arslan said.

In the aftermath of the incident, two locals, identified as Sardar Saghir and Muhammad Azam Qureshi, were left critically injured. The former belonged to Polas while the latter was from Taroti village.

Arslan said that the UN observers were lucky to have escaped the incident unscathed, adding that the team immediately left for Abbaspur to inquire about the condition of the critically injured men who were brought to the medical facility by the locals.

The news spread like wild-fire in Abbaspur, after which locals came out on the streets and protested against the barbaric Indian act.

A local activist Saqib Mushtaq said, “This incident supports our claims that India has been committing ceasefire violations and is actively targeting civilians on our side of the border.”

Meanwhile, as protestors condemned the UN team for “abandoning the injured” who needed immediate medical attention, police official Arslan said that the UN observers themselves were shocked over the incident because they had passed a ‘hotline message’ to the Indian border command to notify them beforehand of their visit to the LoC.

He said the injured men were shifted to Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan Hospital in Rawalkot. “Later, the UN team went to Poonch district headquarters to record their statements in connection with the Indian firing incident,” he added.

On the other hand, Pakistan Army’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), had yet to issue any statement in connection with the incident.