Pak PM Nawaz Sharif terms LoC firing by India as ‘naked aggression’

Rich tributes paid to soldiers of Armed Forces of Pakistan. There was no immediate word from India on the casualty count.

Britain has also always been concerned about radicalised Islamists with links or training in Pakistan carrying out attacks on British soil.

India meanwhile summoned a Pakistani diplomat to lodge a protest over what it said were continued violations of a 2003 cease-fire. The body of one of the soldiers was mutilated in the attack, military officials said.

Relations between nuclear-armed neighbours Pakistan and India have been strained for several months, while cross-frontier shelling has intensified leading to the deaths of civilians and soldiers stationed along the disputed frontier.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif held a high-level security meeting to review the Kashmir situation. Nine people died and 11 were injured when a shell struck a passenger bus.

Pakistan urged the worldwide community to take note of the intentional targeting of civilians and increasing number of civilian casualties, and called upon the global community to play an active role in diffusing the deteriorating security situation along the LoC which has been deliberately escalated by the Indian side.

“We will not accept any Indian influence or hegemony under any circumstances”, Sartaj Aziz while winding up debate on Line of Control (LoC) situation in the Lower House on Friday. In a separate statement it said that “intense firing” was ongoing. Tensions have escalated since militants attacked an Indian army base in Kashmir in September. Islamabad denied any role and condemned later cross-border strikes by India, which inflicted casualties of their own.

Police said soldiers and counterinsurgency police raided Naidkhai village on a tip and engaged militants in the gunbattle.

Guns fell silent on Thursday on both sides of the border after almost two months of heavy artillery firing.

The Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz, briefed the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, saying that India’s deliberately targeting of civilian populated areas was condemnable, and it must be investigated. Both New Delhi and Islamabad have accused each other of resorting to unprovoked firings and violating cease-fire agreements.

Economic expansion is set to increase due to a $54 billion investment from China in a network of road, rail and energy projects that will form an economic corridor linking western China with Pakistan’s Arabian Sea port at Gwadar.