In a tit-for-tat action, Pakistan Army on Monday destroyed an Indian army post across the Line of Control and killed two soldiers hours after a Pakistani minor boy lost his life in Indian firing on a border village.
“Pakistan Army troops neutralised [an] Indian post which targeted a minor along [the] LoC,” killing two soldiers, the military’s media wing said in a brief statement.
Nearly two hours earlier, Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor had said in a tweet that an eight-year-old boy named Ayan was killed due to Indian firing in Janjot Bahadar village of Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s Kotli district.
“Use of Pellet guns in Indian Occupied Kashmir and blatant targeting of innocent unarmed civilians across LoC exposes [the] true Indian face,” he wrote along with a photo of the deceased boy.
Abid Hussain, an official at Khuiratta police station, told Dawn by telephone that Ayan Zahid, son of Chaudhry Muhammad Zahid was in the courtyard of his house when a bullet fired from across the LoC hit him in the head at about 5pm.
He succumbed to the wound while he was being taken to Tehsil Headquarters Hospital, the official added.
The incident comes days after Pakistani troops destroyed another Indian army post that was “targeting innocent citizens” in Tatta Pani (Hot Spring) sector of Kotli district. Five Indian soldiers were killed and many injured then, according to ISPR.
That development had come hours after Indian troops hit a school van in a highly vulnerable border village in AJK, killing its driver on the spot.
The heavily militarized dividing line is witnessing constant cross-border shelling in a serious breach of a truce agreement signed in November 2003 by the two armies.
Source: Dawn
