Indian forces resorted to firing on a school van across the Line of Control in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir on Friday, killing driver of the vehicle and leaving eight children injured, officials said.
The attack came as Pakistanis remembered victims of 2014 Army Public School carnage, carried out by foreign terrorists, and pushes peace search further on the back burner.
The incident occurred at Mohra village in the Nakyal sector of Pakistani-administered Kashmir across the Line of Control (LoC) where officials said shelling by Indian troops was continuing.
“A shell fired by Indian troops hit a school van at LoC in Nakyal sector. The driver has been martyred and eight children wounded,” Azad Kashmir government official said.
The van was carrying pupils from a private school and the children, aged between 10 and 15 years, were taken to hospital amid heavy shelling.
The firing was a violation of a 2003 ceasefire, ISPR, the Pakistani army’s media wing said in a statement.
“Pakistani troops effectively responded and targeted Indian posts from where fire was coming,” said the statement.
The ongoing skirmishes and cross-LoC attacks have deeply hurt peace prospects in the region, where the two South Asian countries have fought two of their three wars since independence from Britain in 1947 over Kashmir.
The Jammu and Kashmir dispute will be one of the flashpoints for the new UN Secretary General Antonoio Guterres, assuming charge on January 1, and remains one of the oldest disputed on the world body’s agenda. Pakistan has welcomed President-elect Donald Trump’s statement on helping with resolution of the Kashmir tensions.
Both Islamabad and New Delhi blame each other for stoking terrorism in the region, and recently Indian prime minister issued a veiled threat of inflaming militancy in Balochistan. India alleges that an attack on Uri military base in Indian-administered Kashmir was carried out by Pakistan-based militants. Islamabad says by blaming Pakistan India cannot hide its repression of Kashmiris since spontaneous uprising against New Delhi’s rule this year. India has also openly opposed China Pakistan Economic Corridor that connects China with the Gulf through Gwadar port in Balohcistan province.
Tension between India and Pakistan have been exacerbating since July. In November, at least nine people were killed and seven others wounded in cross-border fire that hit a passenger bus in the village of Nagdar in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
A brutal Indian crackdown on protests in its part of Kashmir has killed at least 80 civilians since the July.
Meanwhile, Pakistanis paid tributes to the memory of children who died in December 16 2014 attacks on Army Public School. December 16 is also the date of fall of Dhaka in 1971, when Bangladesh became a separate country after Indian military intervention as well as backing of armed militancy.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif pledged to continue the country’s fight against terror.
The new Chief of the Army Staff, General Qamar Javed Bajwa attended a ceremony at Army Public School, expressing his resolve to continue efforts for the eradication of terrorism in Pakistan.
“ We will continue the fight till the death of every victim of APS attack is avenged,” Bajwa said.
