ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday said India was crossing all limits by targeting innocent civilians and ambulances.

He said that Pakistan had exercised maximum restraint despite continuing ceasefire violations by Indian security forces along the Line of Control (LoC).

“However, we cannot tolerate deliberate targeting of innocent civilians particularly children and women, ambulances and the civilian transport,” the premier said while chairing a meeting after Indian forces targeted a passenger bus near Neelum Valley the other day.

Advisor to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt-Gen Rizwan Akhtar, Special Assistant to PM on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi and National Security Advisor Lt-Gen (retd) Nasser Khan Janjua briefed the prime minister on the prevailing situation on the LoC.

Last day, India targeted a civilian bus and an ambulance killing and injuring several people. The coaster was on its way to Muzaffarabad.

Tensions between Pakistan and India have been running high after the killing of a freedom fighter Burhan Wani in held Kashmir by the Indian forces in July and the Uri army base attack in September that killed 19 Indian soldiers.

Since then there have been repeated outbreaks of cross-border firing in Kashmir, with both sides reporting deaths and injuries.

Following the Uri attack, India claimed it had conducted a cross-border surgical strike. Pakistan strongly rejected it.

The meeting reiterated its condemnation of the bus massacre and re-affirmed its political, diplomatic and moral support to the people of Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir in their just and legitimate struggle for the exercise of their right to self-determination in accordance with the United Nations Security Council resolutions.

The meeting urged the international community to take note of the intentional targeting of civilians and increasing number of civilian casualties. The meeting urged the international community to play its active role in diffusing the deteriorating security situation along the LoC which has been deliberately escalated by the Indian side.

Rich tributes were paid to the soldiers of armed forces who laid down their lives while defending their motherland.

The meeting deplored the belligerent targeting of the ambulance which was rescuing the affected of the bus attack, as a blatant violation of international humanitarian law. The meeting agreed that India was deliberately trying to divert the attention of the international community from the grave human rights violations, massacres and atrocities being committed by the Indian security forces against the innocent and defenceless Kashmiris.

“The world in general and India in particular should know that Pakistani nation will never abandon their Kashmiri brethren and will continue to support them in their just and UN mandated freedom struggle,” said an official statement issued after the meeting.

The prime minister reiterated: “The Kashmir issue is an unfinished agenda of the partition; we will never abandon our Kashmiri brethren in their freedom struggle.”