Two soldiers martyred as Indian troops open fire across LoC

RAWALPINDI: Two Pakistan Army soldiers embraced martyrdom on Wednesday after Indian troops opened unprovoked firing in Bhimber sector along the Line of Control.

According to Inter Services Public Relations, Pakistan Army troops responded to Indian unprovoked firing. There are reports of substantial damage to Indian posts.

The martyred include sepoy Muneer Chohan, aged 32 years and resident of village Kahuta, and sepoy Amir Hussain, aged 28 and a resident of district Bhimber.

“In 2017, more than 1,500 Indian ceasefire violations, the highest ever in the recent past, have resulted in 52 deaths and 175 were injured,” Pakistan’s Foreign Office had said.

Pakistan maintains that India by its firing on the LoC was attempting to “deflect the attention of the international community from the continuing Indian atrocities against Kashmiris”.

Ceasefire violations are a frequent feature along the Line of Control (LoC) despite the leadership of the two sides agreeing in November 2017 that the “spirit” of a 2003 ceasefire agreement must be revived to protect innocent lives.

As Indian and Pakistani troops regularly exchange fire across their de-facto border in Kashmir, Pakistan has repeatedly told India to refrain from creating tensed circumstances for the soldiers along the border.

Relations between the two countries have plummeted in last couple of years, with India blaming militants from Pakistan for a raid on an army base in its part of disputed Kashmir in September 2016 that killed 19 soldiers.