ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday lodged a protest against unprovoked Indian ceasefire violations in Azad Jammu and Kashmir which killed three of a family and critically injured two others.
The casualties occurred when a mortar shell landed on the house of a retired schoolteacher in Fatehpur village in the Nezapir sector in Haveli district between 10pm and 11pm, police said.
Foreign Office (FO) Director General (South Asia & SAARC) Muhammad Faisal summoned Indian Deputy High Commissioner JP Singh and condemned the unprovoked ceasefire violations by Indian occupation forces in [the] Rawalakot Sector on August 27, an FO handout read.
Faisal urged the Indian side to respect the 2003 Ceasefire Agreement and to maintain peace along the LoC. He asked them to investigate this and other reported violations, and urged the Indian side to permit the United Nations Military Observers group in India and Pakistan to play the role mandated under the UN Security Council resolutions.
The FO statement claimed there had been over 600 Indian ceasefire violations along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary this year, which claimed the lives of 28 civilians and wounded 113 others, as compared to 382 violations last year.
The last casualty along the LoC was reported on Aug 21, when a 45-year-old woman was injured in the Dhal Khambah village of Bhimber district.
Meanwhile, the visit of a US delegation to Pakistan has been postponed until a mutually convenient time.
US Assistant Secretary of State Alice Wells was to visit Pakistan but according to Foreign Office spokesperson, the visit has been postponed at the request of Pakistan.
The visit of Alice Wells – acting assistant Secretary of State for South Asia and Asian Affairs – was scheduled for Monday and it would have been the first high-profile visit by a US official since Trump’s Afghan policy announced in a televised speech on August 21.
However, it would have been Wells second visit to Islamabad in the month. “At the request of the Government of Pakistan, Acting Assistant Secretary Wells’ trip has been postponed until a mutually convenient time,” a US Embassy spokesperson told a news agency in Islamabad.
Subsequently, Pakistan’s foreign ministry released a statement echoing similar sentiments. However, no further details were shared by either side with regard to Wells visit to Islamabad in near future.
During her visit first visit earlier this month, Wells met Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in the federal capital.
Last week, Pakistan’s foreign office on Wednesday said that blistering criticism by US President Donald Trump was “disappointing” and denied accusations that it supported terrorist groups.
In a firm rebuttal to Trump’s claims that Pakistan had harboured “agents of chaos”, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement asserting its commitment to fighting terrorism.
“No country in the world has suffered more than Pakistan from the scourge of terrorism, often perpetrated from outside our borders. It is, therefore disappointing that the US policy statement ignores the enormous sacrifices rendered by the Pakistani nation in this effort,” it said.
Published in Daily Times, August 29th 2017.
