ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Army on Thursday shot down an Indian quadcopter after it violated Pakistan’s airspace in Sankh Sector along the Line of Control, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Directorate. “In this provocative act, Indian quadcopter intruded 600 meters inside Pakistan’s territory for conducting surveillance,” an ISPR press release while referring to the incident said. “This blatant act was aggressively responded to by Pakistan Army troops shooting down Indian quadcopter. Such unwarranted acts by Indian Army are clear violation of established norms, existing Air Agreement between two countries and reflect Indian Army’s consistent disregard to Ceasefire Understanding of 2003,” said the press release further.
According to military sources, Indian military uses quadcopters for aerial photography of Pakistani posts along the LoC as part of its intelligence-gathering operations and target selection before carrying out shelling across the LoC. Last year in March, Pakistan Army had shot down a spying quadcopter in the Rakhchikri sector along the LoC.
Agencies adds: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday reiterated his call for global ceasefire including at Line of Control (LoC) amid coronavirus pandemic.
Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman to UN Secretary-General, during his regular press briefing in New York said that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ recent appeal for a ceasefire in world’s conflict zones also applies to the Line of Control in the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir.
He said there is no region in the world, in which the Secretary-General’s call for global ceasefire does not apply. “That is clear. It is global and it means global,” he added.
“There is no region in the world, in which the Secretary-General’s call for global ceasefire does not apply,” the UN chief’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said and added: “That is clear. It is global and it means global.”
In an appeal issued on March 23, UN chief urged warring parties across the world to lay down their weapons in support of the bigger battle against COVID-19: the common enemy that is now threatening all of humankind. But that global appeal does not seem to have an effect on Indian occupation troops who frequently fire across the LoC in violation of the ceasefire.
Besides protesting to India, Pakistan has also been filing complaints against New Delhi’s aggressive acts with the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), which observes and reports on ceasefire violations along and across the Line of Control and the working boundary between the South Asian neighbours in Jammu and Kashmir, as well as reports developments that could lead to ceasefire.