FEATURED IMAGE above shows the floodlit border zone between India and Pakistan has a distinctly orange hue in this astronaut photograph PHOTO CREDIT: By ISS Expedition 28 crew (NASA Earth Observatory) via Wikimedia Commons
Pakistan and India reported two deaths each in cross-border shelling on Monday, as tensions continued to simmer between the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors.
Each side blamed the other for starting the firing.
A Pakistani man and a toddler were killed in overnight Indian shelling from across the Working Boundary in Sialkot district, Islamabad said on Monday,
“Due to unprovoked Indian firing at the Working Boundary last night, a civilian Muhammad Latif of village Janglora and a minor Haniya embraced shahadat while seven civilians were injured,” a statement by the media wing of Pakistan Army said.
India on the other hand, said the firing occurred in the Pura, Pargwal and Kanachak sectors.
According to the Indian miliatary, firing into Jammu region killed a Border Security Force (BSF) soldier, while a boy later succumbed to his wounds.
Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations statement added, Pakistan Rangers Punjab responded “befittingly” to Indian firing and shelling in Harpal, Pukhlian and Charwah sectors on the Working Boundary.
The border between Indian-controlled Kashmir and Pakistan’s Punjab province is called Working Boundary while the line dividing Kashmir under Indian and Pakistani control is termed as Line of Control.
The injured civilians have been shifted to Combined Military Hospital Sialkot.
In its statement on Sunday night, the ISPR had said Indian Border Security Force (BSF) troops opened fire in the Chuprar and Harpal sectors.
India has violated the ceasefire at the Line of Control (LoC) and working boundary about 600 times during the last two years, officials said.
Islamabad maintains that India is attempting to divert the world’s attention away from ‘atrocities’ committed by government forces in India-held Kashmir.
Pakistan and India have locked horns over the Kashmir issue since Indian forces stepped up a crackdown against protesters in July this year. The Indian forces have killed more than 100 Kashmiris while quelling the protests across all the 10 districts of Indian Held Kashmir. The use of brute force including pellet guns has blinded another one hundred Kashmiris.
