One killed, four injured as Indian forces target school van along LoC
- By Web Desk -
- Dec 16, 2016
SIALKOT: Indian Border Security forces on Friday targeted a school van near the Line of Control (LoC), killing a civilian and injuring four children.
According to ISPR, one civilian embraced martyrdom and four school children were injured when Indian troops violating ceasefire sanctity targeted a school van at LoC in Nakial sector today.
“Pakistani troops effectively responded and targeted Indian posts from where the gunshots were fired.”
Indian forces had violated the ceasefire at the Line of Control (LoC) and the Working Boundary with Pakistan 221 times in the year 2015.
As tension escalated in the region recently, cross-border exchange of fire was increasingly becoming frequent between the nuclear-armed rivals.
On October 25, Indian troops opened fire along the border in Bhimber and Chuprar sectors again, killing a civilian, identified as Waqar.
Read: Two Pakistani soldiers martyred in Indian firing along LoC
Pakistan later in the day lodged a protest with India and the United Nations Military Observers group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) over the killing of civilians and repeated cross-border firing by Indian forces.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also summoned Indian Deputy High Commissioner JP Singh and questioned him over ceasefire violations by BSF.
Relations between the two countries have plummeted in recent months, with India blaming militants from Pakistan for a raid on an army base in its part of disputed Kashmir in September that killed 19 soldiers.
‘Border ceasefire’
In September 2015, the heads of India’s Border Security Force and the Pakistani Rangers met in New Delhi to find ways to de-escalate tensions along the border as part of a series of measures agreed by the leaders of the two countries in July.
The border chiefs agreed to hold back cross-border firing and not to retaliate immediately to violations of a 15-year ceasefire, an Indian interior ministry official said.
“Both have decided not to immediately retaliate against firing from either side and to contact the other side to know the cause of firing,” the official said, reading from a draft text the two governments agreed.
Tens of thousands of soldiers are massed on either side of Kashmir, one of the world’s most militarized regions, and in recent months they have stepped up cross-border firing.