MUZAFFARABAD: Indian troops committed more than 2,900 ceasefire violations across the restive Line of Control (LoC) last year, leaving as many as 33 innocent civilians martyred and another 260 wounded in different parts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), said a cabinet member on the last day of 2020.

As many as 28 civilians in AJK were martyred and another 172 injured in 2018, while the number of lives lost during 2019 surged to 59 with 281 others wounded due to unprovoked Indian shelling across the LoC.

“Even when the whole world has been hardly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Indian army did not discontinue their ghastly practice of pounding our unarmed civilian populations along the dividing line. Not only the civilians, they also targeted the UN military observers who were on their routine monitoring mission along the LoC,” said AJK’s senior minister Chaudhry Tariq Farooq while referring to the December 18 shooting at a UN vehicle in Poonch district.

Most of the 33 civilians who lost their lives in 2020 were women, says senior minister

Seventeen of the 33 martyrs were women, he said, adding that among the male victims, the youngest was two-year-old Adeeb Sudhir of the Neelum valley and the oldest was 75-year-old Mohammad Bashir of district Haveli. Similarly, a 75-year-old woman, Jan Begum of district Bhimber, was also among the martyrs, he said while sharing details of the physical and material losses with Dawn.

The latest fatality, he told, occurred on Wednesday when a 50-year-old woman, identified as Zobina Bibi, wife of Ajaib, passed away in a Rawalpindi hospital after battling for her life for more than a month.

The minister explained that 260 civilians were wounded due to the frequent ceasefire violations by Indian troops. Of the injured victims, 161 were male and 99 were female.

On November 22, a mortar shell fired by the Indian army had left 11 participants of a wedding ceremony in Seri sector of Kotli district injured. They included Ms Bibi and seven years old Hoorain who later died in a Rawalpindi hospital, on Dec 17.

“There are heart-wrenching stories of death and destruction from almost all areas along the LoC. People caught in indiscriminate shelling and people targeted by the trigger-happy Indian snipers even during apparent calm,” he said.

Giving the district-wise break up of fatalities, Mr Farooq said nine civilians had lost their lives in district Kotli, seven in Neelum valley, six in district Haveli, five in district Bhimber, four in district Poonch and two in Jhelum valley.

Of those who had sustained injuries, 75 belonged to Kotli district, 52 to Bhimber district, 44 to Poonch district, 35 to Neelum district, 25 to Jhelum valley district, 23 to Haveli district and six to Muzaffarabad district, he added.

The senior minister for physical planning and housing said that enemy shelling had also wreaked havoc on civilian properties, including 596 houses that were partially or completely damaged, as well as 40 shops that were destroyed at a time when the pandemic had a devastating impact on the livelihoods in most parts of the AJK.

Giving details of the losses, Mr Farooq told that Neelum valley was the worst-hit district in 2020 in terms of property losses as 34 houses and 14 shops were either burnt to ashes or razed to ground in addition to another partially damaged 167 houses.

In Jhelum valley, eight houses and 16 shops were destroyed and 88 houses were partially damaged.

In Poonch district, 143 houses were partially damaged while six houses and seven shops were destroyed.

In Kotli district, 83 houses were partially damaged while three houses and two shops were destroyed.

In Bhimber district 38 houses were partially damaged and one shop was destroyed. In Haveli district, 10 houses were partially damaged and seven houses were destroyed.

In Muzaffarabad district, only eight houses had been partially damaged.

Besides, a petrol pump, 23 vehicles and five motorcycles, four rice milling machines, three cattle sheds and nine mosques were also partially or completely damaged, he said, adding that villagers had also lost some 192 cattle heads to the enemy shelling.

Of the public sector infrastructure, the senior minister said one health facility, three colleges and five schools besides an agriculture department office building had suffered damages due to the Indian shelling.

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2021