MUZAFFARABAD/SIALKOT: Three people, including a child, were killed and six others were injured in heavy shelling by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) along the Line of Control in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and the Sialkot Working Boundary late on Thursday and Friday.

Saima, 25, Amna, 7, and Abdul Latif, 50, residents of villages in Kotli district, died and Alizah, 10, Siddique, 55, Naila Ilyas, 14, Shazia Akhtar, 25, and Shaheen Akhtar, 36, and Nazar Hussain, 65, were injured.

They were taken to two health facilities for treatment.

ISPR dismisses India’s claim of killing Pakistani soldier along Working Boundary

Senior officials of the Pakistan Rangers told Dawn that the Nakyal and Tatta Pani sectors were the hardest hit and some villages in the Samahni sector, Bhimber district, along the LoC came under fire. There was intermittent shelling in villages in the Bajwat, Chaprar, Harpal, Bajrah Garhi, Charwah and Shakargarh sectors along the Working Boundary on Thursday night and early Friday morning.

Several mortar shells landed in public schools in Charwah-Merajkey but did not explode.

Sialkot District Coordination Officer Dr Asif Tufail said all schools in Sialkot’s border villages remained closed for the sixth consecutive day. “Most residents of these villages have left. The schools will reopen once the tension eases.”

Since Oct 19, seven residents of villages in Kotli district and one in Bhimber district have been killed in Indian firing.

In a statement, the Inter-Services Public Relations dismissed claims that the BSF had killed a Pakistani soldier at the Working Boundary. “This is absolutely baseless...it is a part of their propaganda to underplay their losses at the Working Boundary.”

Published in Dawn October 29th, 2016