Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: A woman and a teenage boy were killed and six others wounded in two districts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) after Indian troops resorted to shelling from across the Line of Control (LoC) on Sunday, civil and military officials said.

“Indian troops resorted to unprovoked firing in Nezapir sector targeting civil population. A citizen embraced shahadat while 2 children [were] injured,” the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a brief statement.

The military’s media wing claimed that Pakistani forces responded ‘effectively’. Nezapir sector is located in Haveli district. Haveli Deputy Commissioner Kashif Hussain said that shelling began at around 11am and continued till 4pm. “Indian forces used both small and heavy weapons but got a befitting response from our side,” he claimed.

He said a 16-year-old boy, Rafaqat son of Zakar, was herding cattle in Akhori Bala village when he fell victim to the Indian shelling and lost his life.

In Kairni village of the same sector, eight-year-old Usama and his seven-year-old sister Mavia were injured and shifted to a military-run health facility in Kahuta, the district headquarters, he added.

In Kotli district, Indian troops fired mortar shells at Tarkundi, Plani and Kalar Galla villages of Nakyal sector in the afternoon, “without any provocation, targeting unarmed and innocent civilian populations,” said Nakyal Assistant Commissioner Waleed Anwar. A 25-year-old woman, identified as Tasleem Begum, daughter of Sadiq, embraced martyrdom in Plani village, he added.

Her 27-year-old namesake Tasleem Bibi, wife of Khalil, and a 50-year-old man Javed, son of Fateh, were also injured in the same village, he maintained.

Published in Daily Times, February 5^th 2018.