Indian soldiers again targeted Pakistani posts and villages along the Line of Control (LoC), killing at least two civilians and two troops, officials said Saturday.
Tensions have been running high since Indian aircraft crossed into Pakistan on Tuesday, carrying out what India claimed a pre-emptive strike against alleged militants blamed for a Feb 14 suicide bombing in Indian-held Kashmir that killed 40 Indian troops. Pakistan retaliated, shooting down two fighter jets Wednesday and detaining a pilot, who was returned to India on Friday in a ‘peace gesture’.
Fighting resumed overnight Friday. Pakistan’s military said two of its soldiers were killed in an exchange of fire with Indian forces near the Line of Control. It marked the first fatalities for Pakistani troops since Wednesday, when tensions dramatically escalated between the nuclear-armed neighbours over Kashmir.
In Azad Kashmir, government official Umar Azam said Indian troops with heavy weapons indiscriminately targeted border villagers along the Line of Control, killing a boy and wounding three other people. He said several homes were destroyed by Indian shelling.
Following a lull of a few hours, shelling and firing of small arms resumed Saturday. A military statement said two civilians were killed and two others wounded in the fresh fighting.
The Indian army said Pakistani troops attacked Indian posts at several places along the militarized line. Indian police said two siblings and their mother were killed in the occupied valley. The three died after a shell allegedly fired by Pakistani soldiers hit their home in the Poonch region near the Line of Control. The children’s father was critically wounded. Since tensions escalated following last month’s suicide attack, world leaders have scrambled to head off an all-out war between India and Pakistan.
Indian troops fatally shoot a civilian during anti-India protests in IHK as two paramilitary soldiers and two policemen killed in gun battle
The current violence marks the most serious escalation of the long-simmering conflict since 1999, when Pakistan’s military sent a ground force into Indian-held Kashmir.
The latest wave of tensions began after militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad claimed responsibility for the Feb 14 suicide bombing on Indian paramilitary forces. India has long accused Pakistan of cultivating such groups to attack it. Pakistan has said it was not involved in that attack and that it was ready to help New Delhi in the investigation.
On both sides of the LoC, thousands of people have fled to government-run temporary shelters or relatives’ homes in safer areas to escape deadly and relentless shelling. “These battles are fought on our bodies, in our homes and fields, and we still don’t have anything in our hands. We are at the mercy of these soldiers,” said Mohammed Akram, a resident in the Mendhar area in Indian-held Kashmir.
Sakina, a young woman who fled to a shelter with her two children, said the frequent shelling had made them “homeless in our own land.” In Azad Kashmir, many displaced families urged the international community to help resolve the issue of Kashmir so that they can live peacefully. “Whenever India fires mortars, it’s we who suffer,” said Latif, a labourer who took refuge at a government building that was vacated for sheltering displaced families.
“I don’t care whether the Indian pilot is gone or not, I don’t care who released him and why, but I want to know whether peace will return to us after his return to India,” said Sadiq, a shopkeeper who also was among the displaced. He said the latest tensions between Pakistan and India rose so suddenly that some people sold their sheep, cows and buffaloes at throwaway prices in his native Chikothi town. “We did not know whether we will get any shelter and how could we take our animals with us,” he said.
People living along the Line of Control keep bunkers near their homes, but residents say they cannot spend day and night in them.
Meanwhile, Indian police said two paramilitary soldiers and two counterinsurgency police officials were killed in a gun battle with freedom fighters in Indian-held Kashmir, while troops fatally shot a civilian during anti-India protests.
Published in Daily Times, March 3rd 2019.
