Pakistan summons Indian envoy over ceasefire violations

Three civilians were also injured in the firing, a statement from the military’s Inter-Services Public Relations said, adding that Pakistani troops bafflingly responded to the Indian firing.

The repeated ceasefire violations have claimed six lives in two days from August 15-16, drawing strong protests from India.

Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, who have fought three wars since they were created in 1947, have been exchanging heavy intermittent fire across the Line of Control – the de facto border – nearly daily for a week.

On the other hand, six civilians also killed over the weekend in Indian Occupied Kashmir after shelling and firing from the Pakistan side, an Indian official said.

Pakistan and India have been engaged in hostility over Kashmir ever since their independence from British rule and their partition in 1947. Both sides used terms like “unprovoked firing” and “befitting reply” to describe the actions of the other, and detailed their own response.

Pakistani Army resorted to heavy firing and mortar shelling on forward posts and civilian villages in Poonch and Balakote sectors since this morning, Defence Spokesman Lt Col Manish Mehta said.

Another two civilians were killed in shelling by Indian soldiers into the Pakistani side of the disputed Himalayan region, according to a Pakistani official on Saturday.

Indian border troops fired at Char Wah sector in Sialkot district along the Working Boundary, global border between the rivals.

There has been incessant firing of small arms and mortar bombs by Pakistan Rangers since yesterday night (Monday, 17 July) on five Border Out Posts along the IB in Arnia and R S Pura sectors in Jammu district, a BSF spokesperson said.

Pakistan summoned the Indian Deputy High Commissioner on Monday to lodge a strong protest against the recent unprovoked ceasefire violations by Indian troops in Azad Jammu and Kahmir’s Nakial sector (Kotli).

National Security Advisors of India and Pakistan – Ajit Doval and Sartaj Aziz – will hold talks on terrorism-related issues for the first time on August 23. Though some violations have been reported on both sides, the ceasefire however remains in effect.