The Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Indian Deputy High Commissioner J.P. Singh on Thursday to protest against the killing of two civilians as a result of yet another unprovoked ceasefire violation by the Indian forces across the Line of Control (LoC).
On Wednesday, a 35-year-old man Mohammad Zahoor, who was a resident of the village Dewara and a woman Reshma Bibi from the village Kakran, were shot dead by Indian forces as both sides engaged in cross-border firing in the Phuklian Sector across the Working Boundary. Three others were injured in the relentless firing.
The Foreign Office’s director general for South Asia and Saarc, Dr Mohammad Faisal, urged India to respect the 2003 ceasefire agreement in letter and in spirit, and investigate violations to maintain peace along the LoC.
India should allow the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan to play its mandated role according to the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, he said.
The heavily militarised 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 Azad Jammu and Kashmir when an Indian soldier opened fire across the Line of Control.
The orphan was killed when a single bullet by the 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.
