26 died in Indian shelling, Senate committee told
ISLAMABAD: The Senate Defence Committee was informed on Friday that 26 Pakistanis had been killed in over 200 ceasefire violations along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary over the past three months.
The Senate committee was given a briefing on the tense situation along the de-facto border in Kashmir by Defence Secretary retired Lt Gen Alam Khattak.
The briefing incidentally coincided with talks between Pakistani Rangers’ DG and Indian Border Security Force chief in Delhi for restoring calm along the Working Boundary.
A defence ministry official said that Pakistan had been exercising maximum restraint and its efforts to reach out to local commanders to defuse the situation in the past did not meet much success.
“Pakistan formation commanders sent 39 hotline messages at the brigade level to their counterparts in the Indian military but to no avail,” the committee was told. The committee meeting presided over by its Chairman Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed adopted a unanimous resolution condemning India’s aggressive stance and military violations across the LOC and the Working Boundary with Pakistan. The committee urged the international community to take immediate note of systematic Indian belligerence.
Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2015
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