MIRPUR (AJK)      -      Three civilians embraced martyrdom and three others sustained injuries when Indian security forces, violating the ceasefire agreement, opened fire in Neizapir Sector of Haveili District in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, AJK government said yesterday.
“Indian troops resorted to unprovoked firing along the Line of Control (LoC) violating the ceasefire and targeted the civilian population in Kairni Mohri villages close to the LoC on Tuesday – leaving three people martyred, besides injuring three others,” said an official handout issued by the AJK government.
Those embraced martyrdom were Ghulam Muhammad s/o Lal Din (54), Haider Ali s/o Muhammad Khalil (10) and Marayam Bibi d/o Ghulam Muhammad (12). The injured included Amna Bibi w/o Muhammad Tariq, Safeena Bibi wife of Muhammad Arif and Naseeb Jan wife of Abdul Subbhan, residents of Mandhar and Mohri villages of the Haveili districts.
The injured were rushed to nearby hospital where they were being provided necessary treatment.
Meanwhile, Azad Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan has strongly condemned Indian firing on civilian population in Neizapir Sector of Haveli District.
The prime minister paid rich tributes to martyrs of armed forces who are rendering matchless sacrifices protecting the frontiers of the motherland. He said the nation was proud of its brave soldiers and the civilian population who were foiling nefarious designs of the enemy.
Raja Farooq Haider directed the hospital administration to provide best available medical facilities to those injured in Indian firing.
Azad Jammu and Kashmir President Sardar Masood Khan, in a separate message on Tuesday, also condemned the unprovoked firing by the Indian occupation forces in Neizapir Sector of AJK’s Haveili District.
“The remote Neiza Peer area located in Haveli district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) was heavily shelled by Indian troops from across the LoC on Tuesday, leaving three civilians including a minor girl dead and eight others wounded,” said an official statement issued by the AJK Presidential Secretariat.
Stating that Indian forces were escalating tension along LoC only to distract world’s attention from the human rights violations in Indian-occupied Kashmir (IOK), President Masood said that Indian acts of aggression at LoC could not dampen spirits of Kashmiri people struggling to liberate their motherland from Indian occupation.
Expressing sympathies with the families of those martyred, AJK President said the Indian aggressive posturing had threatened peace of the entire region.
“We pay tribute to people living along the Line of Control (LoC) and braving Indian aggression with a valiant spirit and assured them of compensation for their losses,’ the president said.
He said India was subjecting Kashmiris to worst kind of tyranny and barbarism on both sides of the LoC, the statement added.