India, Pakistan resume shelling over Kashmir border
October 9, 2014, 11:07 am

Approximately, 20,000 Indian civilians have also fled their homes owing to the fighting in border areas of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir [Xinhua]

Intermittent firing exchanges between the Border Security Force of India, a paramilitary force of India, and Pakistan Rangers, the border security force of Pakistan in Kashmir, are still going on at some places on the border, the Indo-Asian News Service reported earlier Thursday.

New Delhi on Wednesday summoned a top Pakistani diplomat to lodge a protest over the repeated ceasefire violations.

“Pakistan’s Deputy High Commissioner to India in New Delhi has been told that unprovoked firing by Pakistan must stop,” sources told Indian daily Hindustan Times.

“Pakistan has clearly been the aggressor, they must realize our deterrents will be credible. If Pakistan persists with this adventurism, our forces will make the cost of this adventurism unaffordable,” Indian Defense Minister Arun Jaitley warned on Thursday.

“Everything will be fine soon,” said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday in his first remarks on the border crisis.

Following shelling and firings on the disputed border in Kashmir by security forces of the two countries over the past few days, 47 civilian deaths have been reported in Pakistan and India.

Approximately, 20,000 Indian civilians have also fled their homes owing to the fighting in border areas of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Pakistan has not yet reacted to news reports of their envoy being summoned in New Delhi. But the country’s Foreign Ministry said earlier that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will convene a meeting of the top military and civilian leaders on Friday to discuss the escalation.

“The National Security Committee will discuss the recent ceasefire violations by India at the Line of Control and working boundary,” said the Pakistan Foreign Ministry in a statement.

Last month, the Kashmir valley, on both sides of the Indo-Pak border, had been ravaged by the worst flooding in more than a century.

In August 1947, India and Pakistan became independent. Under the scheme of partition provided by the Indian Independence Act of 1947, Kashmir was free to accede to India or Pakistan. Its accession to India became a matter of dispute between the two countries and fighting broke out later that year.

The military authorities of Pakistan have continued to lodge complaints with UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan about ceasefire violations.

The military authorities of India have lodged no complaints since January 1972 and have restricted the activities of the UN observers on the Indian side of the Line of Control. They have, however, continued to provide accommodation, transport and other facilities to UNMOGIP.

The Pakistani Military said on Tuesday it has lodged a complaint with the UNMOGIP regarding the continuing trouble at the border.

TBP and Agencies