Pakistan’s military this week said there had been an escalation in firing and shelling across the de facto border that separates Pakistani and Indian-controlled Kashmir, at a time of heightened diplomatic tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
Major General Amer Ahsan Nawaz, the commander of Pakistani troops in Kashmir, accused the Indian military of trying to distract attention from unrest in its part of Kashmir.
“If you compare it to the past years, there is a definite increase in this year,” he told reporters near the so-called Line of Control (LoC).
The military said that in 2019, when ceasefire violations hit a more than decade-high peak, there were just over 3,500 incidents.
Already in 2020 there have been almost 1,800 violations, the military said, adding that the surge during the more volatile summer season since June had been more pronounced than in previous years.
In recent months the diplomatic relationship has worsened further as Delhi and Islamabad each ejected half of its neighbour’s diplomats.
On Pakistan’s side of Kashmir, which is relatively heavily populated close to the LoC, locals said that shelling or firing was becoming a near-daily occurrence.
“It can start any time day or night,” said Malik Mohamed Ayub, a local deputy commissioner, who said around four civilians were killed and 13 wounded in his district since he took the job four months ago.
Faiza Shabbir, 12, said she and her sisters had been afraid when shelling began in their area earlier this month.
“Firing was going on, so we hid in our house, then a shell hit our roof.
“Three of us sisters and our grandmother were injured,” she said, adding that had spent four days in hospital being treated for shrapnel wounds.
During interaction with a group of international media which visited the Line of Control at Chirikot Sector, residents hoped the people of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir will taste freedom soon.
The international media was shown areas in Poonch sector towards Indian side from where Indian troops deliberately targeted civilian population with heavy weapons.
The international media was also shown the Indians’ surveillance grid and obstacle system along the LoC. It also witnessed military posts deployed along LoC eyeball to eyeball.
Faiza (left) and Sheerat Shabbir, who are sisters and got shrapnel wounds when a shell hit their family house, sit along with other villagers and journalists during a trip organised by the army, near the Line of Control (LoC) in Chirikot Sector, Kashmir.
