6 killed, 20 injured by ‘unprovoked Indian firing’, says Pakistan

 

Six people, including four women, were killed and 20 others injured near the Working Boundary in Sialkot on Thursday as Indian forces “resorted to unprovoked firing of mortars targeting civilians”, local administration and the Pakistan army’s media wing said.

Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) had said that four people were killed by firing and mortar shelling in the village of Bini Sulariyan in the Charwah sector, Dawn News reported on Friday.

However, Deputy Commissioner (DC) Dr Farrukh Naveed told Dawn News that the number of dead had risen to six people, who he identified as Mariam Mahmood, Mariam Ishaq, Nafees Bibi, Khursheed Bibi, Ashraf Mansoor and Imran Ghani.

At least 20 people were also injured in the cross-border firing and shelling in the Harpal, Sajeetgarh and Charwah sectors, he said, adding that Indian forces have been targeting civilians in the area for the past week.

A large number of livestock was also killed and wounded in the shelling, he said.

The DC said that hospitals in the area had been placed on high alert, and that four relief camps had been set up in Chobara, Dalowali, Pindibhago and Wark which are near the Working Boundary.

The Pakistan Rangers “befittingly responded on posts targeting [the] civilian population,” ISPR said.

The heavily militarised Line of Control (LoC) and Working Boundary have witnessed sporadic skirmishes and artillery duels since the alleged Indian ‘surgical strike’ last September, in violation of the 2003 Ceasefire Agreement signed by both countries.

Earlier this month, a five-year-old girl was killed in Pakistan administered Kashmir when an Indian soldier opened fire across the LoC.

The orphan was killed when a single bullet by an Indian soldier hit her as she stood in the courtyard of her house in Polas village of Abbaspur sector in the southern Poonch district.

Protests were held in the area against the “apathy of the state and the government towards the plight of the people living along the LoC” after the incident.

More recently, an elderly man was killed in a cross-border exchange of fire.

Meanwhile, Indian officials claimed that four civilian were injured after Pakistan opened fire in Arnia, RS Pura and Ramgarh areas of Jammu division.

“Six livestock were killed, 34 injured in the shelling,” he said, adding that two houses were damaged as well.

The officials said that 727 civilians were evacuated from the residential areas in the wake of shelling.

Yesterday, an Indian army soldier was killed and three others were injured in a ‘sniper fire’ by Pakistan Rangers at Keran sector along the Line of Control in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district.

 

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