MUZAFFARABAD: Ind­ian troops on Saturday fired a rocket from across the Line of Control (LoC), leaving a young woman dead and her two siblings and a cousin critically injured in a village of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), officials said.

The attack took place when the victims were making naan (bread) in a wood-fired oven in Baig Wala Lanjot, a hamlet barely 150 metres from the Line of Control in the Nakyal sector of Kotli district, at about 12 noon.

Assistant Commissioner Waleed Anwar said 26-year-old Rubaida Khayam, daughter of Sardar Khayam, died and her sisters Sufaida and Zubaiba Khayam and cousin Sumaida Ismail were critically injured in the attack.

Sumaida had been refer­red to a hospital in Islamabad while the other two were admitted to Kotli’s District Headquarters Hospital.

On Friday, Shan Begum and Zara Khalid were injured in Keri village of the Charhoi sector and Sana Babar in Seri Manjwarr village of the Khuiratta sector. They were admitted to DHQ Hospital.

“The bloodthirstiness of Indian troops has crossed limits inside the held territory as well as along the Line of Control,” said AJK’s senior minister Chaudhry Tariq Farooq.

“Today’s unfortunate incident is yet another proof that Indian troops are deliberately targeting non-combatant Kashmiris on both sides of the bloody dividing line in a way that amounts to [commission of] war crimes,” he added.

Protest lodged

According to a statement issued by the Foreign Office in Islamabad, Director Gen­eral Dr Mohammad Faisal summoned Indian Deputy High Commissioner J.P. Singh and condemned the unprovoked ceasefire violations by the Indian forces.

The Indian forces along the LoC and the Working Boundary were continuously targeting civilian populated areas with heavy weapons, it said.

In 2018 so far, the statement added, Indian forces had carried out more than 900 ceasefire violations, leaving 21 innocent civilians dead and 90 others injured.

The FO said that the deliberate targeting of civilian populated areas was indeed deplorable and contrary to human dignity, internatio­nal human rights and humanitarian laws. The ceasefire violations by India were a threat to regional peace and security and might lead to a strategic miscalculation, it added.

Mr Faisal urged India to respect the 2003 ceasefire arrangement, investigate the latest and other incidents of truce violations and instruct the Indian forces to respect the ceasefire in letter and spirit to maintain peace along the LoC and the Working Boundary.

He said India should permit the UNMOGIP to play its mandated role as per the UN Security Council resolutions.

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2018