Indian forces, in another incident of ceasefire violation, martyred a 50-year-old woman named Sajjida Bibi in unprovoked cross-border firing at district headquarters Authmuqam along the Line of Control (LoC) on Wednesday.
The firing started in the morning and was met with a befitting response from Pakistan Army who targeted the Indian Army positions involved in the attack. Soon after the attack, all educational institutions were closed and students were sent to their homes. The civilian population along the LoC was also shifted to safety.
Soon after the incident, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan and Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan strongly condemned Indian firing and said that Indian Army is continuously violating the ceasefire arrangement. They said that India wants to push the civil population back from LoC but “our valiant people will not be intimidated by such acts of cowardice”. They lauded Pakistan Army for protecting the civilian population from Indian aggression.
Pakistan Army also condemned Indian ceasefire violations targeting civilian population along the LoC in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) and reiterated that this cannot suppress the indigenous freedom of brave Kashmiris.
In a tweet, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Major General Asif Ghafoor said that one woman had been martyred and another was injured in the recent ceasefire violation by Indian forces along the LoC.
“Indian Army continues nonprofessional conduct. Besides atrocities in IOK, violating ceasefire targeted civil population in Shahkot sector across LOC. A woman shaheed another injured. Such acts can’t suppress indigenous freedom struggle of brave Kashmiris in IOK,” he said.
On December 31, 2018, Indian troops martyred a woman and injured nine others, including two police constables, in AJK when they opened fire across the LoC.
Reportedly, the target was the entire one-kilometre radius of Athmuqam, the district headquarters of Neelum Valley which is located 80 kilometres northeast of Muzzafarabad and is overlooked by Indian gun positions on top of mountains. In videos of the attack which were shared on social media, people could be seen running for shelter amid shelling. Many people took shelter in a hospital building because of the absence of bunkers.
When the shelling ended after an hour, the body of a 27-year-old woman identified as Asiya Bibi was found outside her home. She was hit in the head by shrapnel from a mortar shell. Nine others were injured. The injured were identified as Sadaf Zia, 16, Misbah Jameel, 8, Kulsoom Shafqat, 18, Zarmeen Bibi, 20, Ansar Bibi, 35, and her son Khawaja Amir, 20, Rafaqat Khan, 35, and police constables Raja Zulqarnain, 36, and Malik Sajjad, 33. The injured were given medical treatment are reportedly out of danger.