Pakistan: Indian shelling kills seven soldiers
November 14, 2016, 10:45 am

A number of Indian military servicemen have been killed as they exchange fire with Pakistani forces over the LOC border near Kashmir [Xinhua]

According to Pakistani media, Islamabad’s Foreign Office Spokesperson Nafees Zakaria tweeted strong condemnation of the “continuous unprovoked”.

He also tweeted that the “Pakistan Army responding in befitting manner. We salute our valiant soldiers who render ultimate sacrifices for national cause.”

The Pakistani military said that it responded to ‘unprovoked’ Indian firing.

The Pakistani government lodged a complaint with India’s High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale who was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad on Monday afternoon.

While New Delhi has not yet officially commented on this latest incident, it has in recent days complained of numerous Pakistani military violations along LOC, including the use of 120mm mortars used to fire shells at civilian areas along the north Kashmir border.

Indian military sources in early November said that ceasefire violations had been the norm in the past few years but had never been as intense as the past few weeks.

Last week, at least three Indian soldiers were killed when they came under Pakistani fire in the Nowshera and Machhal sectors in Kashmir, which both countries claim as their own.

At the same time, Islamabad said that Indian shelling had killed four Pakistani civilians.

In late September, India carried out a number of surgical strikes against what it said were terrorist operating bases along LOC. India said the bases had been used by Pakistani terrorists to launch attacks against Indian military and civilians.

The two countries have in the past two months accused each other of escalating the situation and each has accused the other of “unprovoked aggression”.

The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies