Daily Times

The last year left a trail of blood along the restive Line of Control, taking the lives of 59 civilians, including women and children, and leaving 281 injured in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) due to unprovoked shelling by Indian paramilitary troops. Indian actions show the ceasefire is meaningless. Besides these occasional bombings of civilians, India brought the two countries to the brink of war when it claimed breaching AJK airspace effortlessly in February and allegedly hitting a camp in Balakot. The Pakistan army, however, refuted the propaganda by showing the alleged target to the world – an uninhabited wooded hilltop near the LoC. Later, satellite analysis by the Australian Strategic Police Institute noted that there was “no apparent evidence of more extensive damage and on the face of it does not validate Indian claims regarding the effect of the strikes”. In the ensuing tensions, two Indian birds tried to breach the AJK airspace; they were challenged and engaged by the Pakistan Air Force with the result that one Indian was shot down in AJK space and the other fell in India-occupied Kashmir. One pilot was arrested, only to be released in days as a good will gesture and to defuse tensions. The pretext of the Indian aggression was as absurd as the attack itself. In fact, the airstrike was claimed by the ruling Bhartia Janata Party to impress its nationalist constituency as the general elections approached. Humiliated and broken, the ruling party, however, took a tougher nationalist line and swept the elections. Instead of learning lessons from the downing of the fighter jets, the Indian government resumed shelling soon after the election. Most of the time, shelling is done for political and domestic reasons.

According to the disaster management and civil defence arm of the AJK government, of the 59 martyrs of the LoC shelling, 43 were male and 16 female. Of the total injured, 157 were male and the remaining female. The shelling damaged civilian properties – 105 houses and 74 shops were completely destroyed and 622 houses partially damaged. Bombs also fell on the district headquarters hospital of Athmuqam, three schools in Neelum district, a basic health unit and a college in Poonch, two schools and eight cattle sheds in Kotli, one school in Bhimber and three cattle sheds in Muzaffarabad.

Life along the LoC is very difficult and constantly marred by Indian violence. Pakistan should redouble its effort to engage regional and international powers and apprise them about attacks on non-combatant Kashmiris. *