A group of foreign media correspondents in Pakistan on Thursday visited the Line of Control (LoC) in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, the military’s media wing said, as tensions between Islamabad and New Delhi remain high over India’s move to revoke Indian-held Kashmir’s (IHK) special autonomy.
The journalists reporting for foreign media organisations were briefed on the regional situation and Indian ceasefire violations across the LoC “deliberately targeting civilian population”, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor said in a tweet.
The correspondents also freely interacted with the locals in AJK, the tweet added. It pointed out that IHK, meanwhile, “remains locked down under curfew hiding Indian atrocities”.
Maj Gen Ghafoor also shared video clips and photos showing the foreign journalists receiving a briefing and interviewing local residents.
Munir Ahmed, a correspondent for the Associated Press based in Islamabad, thanked the ISPR DG for inviting the foreign journalists for the visit, saying it helped them “understand situation at the LoC, where Pakistani and Indian troops are ‘eyeball to eyeball’.”
“We went close to a place from where Indian posts could be seen without using binoculars,” the journalist said in a tweet.
India’s government, led by the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, decided on August 5 to repeal of Article 370 of the Indian constitution, which granted IHK special status. The government instituted a security lockdown and communications blackout to avoid violence. The clampdown is now on its 25th day.
