MUZAFFARABAD/Lahore   -  Pakistan Army has said that India cannot suppress indigenous freedom struggle of brave Kashmiris through brutality, in a statement issued after a woman was martyred in cross-LOC shelling by the Indian troops on Wednesday.

Sajida Bibi was killed and another man injured when Indian Army resorted to unprovoked firing and shelling on the Line of control (LOC) around Athmaqam, district headquarter of Neelum Valley.

Deputy Commissioner of this Azad Jammu and Kashmir district, Mehmood Shahid said one of the shells fired by the enemy troops targeted a house killing Sajida, wife of Dulat Khan, 50 on the spot and hurting another man.

Pakistan army retaliated to the fire and Indian guns were made silent, the official said. However schools have been closed in the area and people of the area have been advised to move to safer places, he added.

The DC said that officials of district administration, police, district disaster management authority (DDMA) and district headquarter hospital remained on high alert to cope with any emergency. He added that an emergency cell has also been set up for any emergency or information by DDMA.

ISPR Director General Major General Asif Ghafoor in a tweet condemned the unending violations of ceasefire by India and its brutality.

“Indian Army continues nonprofessional conduct. Besides atrocities in IOK, violating ceasefire targeted civil population in Shahkot sector across LOC. A woman [was made] shaheed [and] another [man was] injured [by Indian firing]. Such acts can’t suppress indigenous freedom struggle of brave Kashmiris in IOK.”

AJK President Sadar Muhammad Masood Khan, Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan, Speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir and Information Minister Mushtaq Minhas also strongly denounced Indian forces unprovoked and indiscriminate firing on Athmuqam.

The 217th Corps Commanders’ monthly conference, chaired by Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa in Rawalpindi the other day,  took a serious notice of the Indian ceasefire violations deliberately targeting innocent civilians along the LoC.

The military leadership voiced its concern and resolved to respond with a befitting response to the unprovoked firing of Indian security forces and their deliberately targeting of innocent civilians.

Foreign Office Spokesperson Mohammad Faisal on Monday had summoned the Indian Deputy High Commissioner JP Singh over the killing of a civilian in the unprovoked firing by the Indian forces along the LoC.

Faisal condemned the indiscriminate firing carried out by the Indian occupation forces in the Bagsar Sector.

In 2018, the Indian forces carried out more than 330 ceasefire violations along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary, resulting in the death of 14 civilians and injuries to 65 others.

This unprecedented escalation in ceasefire violations by India is continuing from the year 2017 when the Indian forces committed more than 1,970 ceasefire violations.

 

Continued harassment of IOK people denounced

(Agencies add) In occupied Kashmir, the Hurriyat forum led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has said that despite unleashing the worst kind of state terrorism, India has failed to suppress the Kashmiris’ resolve to get freedom from its yoke.

According to Kashmir Media Service, the forum spokesman in a statement issued in Srinagar strongly condemned the continued harassment of people during cordon and search operations (CASOs) across the territory.

He said that Indian troops and police personnel were collectively punishing the people and had unleashed a reign of terror across occupied Kashmir especially in south Kashmir by launching frequent CASOs.

He pointed out that during these military operations people of all ages including elderly, women and children are asked to stay out of their house in the biting cold for hours together and youth are harassed and arrested.

The spokesman said that the occupation authorities through their repressive measures had pushed the Kashmiri youth to the wall.

He paid glowing tributes to a youth, Irfan Ahmed Rathar, who was martyred by the troops in Litter area of Pulwama on Tuesday.

Chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Gilani and senior Hurriyat leader Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai also paid glowing tributes to the martyred youth.

In a statement, Gilani said that the youth of the occupied territory were offering their lives to free their homeland from the forcible occupation of India.

Terming Kashmir as a bone of contention between the two nuclear powers of the South Asia, APHC Chairman regretted that the stubborn attitude of India regarding this globally accepted political dispute and dealing with it only militarily has created death and destruction in the whole territory, threatening peace in the region.

He said that with the resolution of this dispute a new era of peace, stability and development will prevail not only in Kashmir but in the whole South Asian region.