Pakistan's Foreign Ministry has summoned India's top diplomat in Islamabad Gaurav Ahluwalia on Friday to protest the continuous ceasefire violations by Indian forces along the Line of Control (LoC).
The ministry condemned the unprovoked firing by Indian forces along the LoC in the Sharda, Nezapir, Satwal and Bagsar Sectors.
“Due to indiscriminate and unprovoked firing by Indian Army in Sharda Sector of LoC, one innocent child Faizan, aged 10 years, embraced martyrdom and others 21 innocent civilians, including seven children and four ladies, sustained serious injuries,” the ministry said in a statement.
Indian forces along the LoC have continuously been targeting civilian areas with artillery fire, heavy-caliber mortars, and automatic weapons, the Pakistani foreign ministry added.
On Thursday, Pakistan military claimed one of its soldiers was killed in unprovoked Indian firing.
“Pakistan Army troops targeted Indian Army posts in response. Post substantially damaged. Reports of casualties to Indian troops,” the Pakistan army’s media wing said on Thursday.
The intermittent firing between the two nuclear-armed nations has been underway for the past 15 days in which six Pakistani civilians have been killed and several others injured.
Earlier this week, Pakistan claimed that Indian forces had been targeting civilian areas for several days.
India and Pakistan both accuse each other of breaching a 2003 ceasefire agreement by shelling and firing over the LoC, resulting in a large number of casualties already this year.
The Indian foreign ministry claimed that since January Pakistan has resorted to more than 2,050 unprovoked ceasefire violations in which 21 Indians have died.
Relations between the two South Asian nations have been strained since February this year, when India blamed Pakistan for sponsoring terror attacks in Kashmir.
Forty Indian soldiers were killed in a suicide attack on a convoy in Pulwama, which was claimed by the UN-designated terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), which maintains bases in Pakistan.
The Indian Air Force carried out a retaliatory air strike to destroy the alleged terror infrastructure of JeM in Balakot inside Pakistan.
The tension resurfaced in August when the Indian government revoked the special status enjoyed by Jammu and Kashmir which Pakistan claims violates bilateral treaties between the two countries.
