The Foreign Office (FO) on Thursday condemned "Indian acts of deliberate targeting of civilians" as cross-border shelling in various sectors along the Line of Control in Azad Jammu and Kashmir overnight left a teenager dead and three others injured.
FO Spokesperson Nafees Zakaria in a tweet alleged that India had violated the ceasefire agreement in the Tandar, Sabzkot, Khuiratta, Baron, Bagsar and Khanjar sectors along the LoC.Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Kotli Chaudhry Zulqarnain Sarfraz told Dawn that shelling allegedly by Indian border security forces killed one and injured two others in Sabzkot.
"A mortar shell pierced through the concrete roof of one house in Sabzkot village at about 2am, killing one and injuring two others while they were asleep," SSP Sarfraz said.
Sabzkot village is located in the closest proximity of Charhoi sector in Kotli district.
The deceased was identified as Rizwan, 18, and the injured were his 14-year old sibling Kamran and 80-year old grandmother Wilayat Begum. They were rushed to district headquarters (DHQ) hospital in the neighbouring Mirpur district, the SSP said.
He said another person – Raja Aziz, 75 — was injured in the Tayin village of Khuiratta sector, also in Kotli district.
The SSP said there had been intense shelling through the night, but the intensity had receded in the morning.
The Samahni sector of Bhimber district also came under shelling, but no casualty was reported from there, a police official in Samahni said. Samahni sector is adjacent to Charhoi sector of Kotli district.
A woman on the Indian side of the border was also killed and her husband wounded in the Naushera sector, India's Director General of Police S.P. Vaid said.
Indian army spokesman Manish Mehta also termed the early morning firing by the Pakistani side "indiscriminate", but said forces were "retaliating strongly and effectively".
On May 6, four persons from the same family were injured in Nakyal sector of Kotli district after a shell had landed on their house in the Dharoti Mohra village.
Tensions are once again running high between Pakistan and India at the heavily militarised LoC, particularly after India alleged earlier this month that Pakistan army troops had killed two Indian soldiers and mutilated their bodies in Buttal sector (Indian Krishna Ghatti Sector).
Pakistan denied the charge, saying such an act was against the values strictly adhered to by the army.
