MUZAFFARABAD: At least five more people, including two women and a girl, were injured on Monday by unprovoked firing and shelling across the Line of Control (LoC) in the Nakyal Sector, Kotli district.
Indian troops fired mortar shells and bullets when they crossed into the Turkandi village and injured Muhammad Qayyum, Khadeeja Begum, Naseem Akhtar, her son, Azhar Akhtar, and an eight-year-old girl, Nakyal Assistant Commissioner (AC) Chaudhry Ayub told.
Besides this, Indian soldiers also attacked the ambulance that was on its way to Nakyal with the two injured people. All the people in the ambulance, however, managed to reach the Nakyal Tehsil Headquarters Hospital safely.
Maize crops and several heads of cattle were also injured by the shelling and firing.
Meanwhile, Pakistani officials said that several hundred villagers in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) have fled their homes after Monday’s deadly cross-border shelling.
People living in the villages near the LoC say they are living in fear amid this fresh border flare-up. “This is our ancestral land and the Indian firing is forcing us to leave our houses,” said Sakhawat Ashraf, a resident of Turkandi village that has been attacked by Indian troops several times during the last four weeks.
“Since Sunday, at least 40 families or 300 people have left their homes in 10 villages in Nakyal sector to escape shelling by Indian troops,” said Javed Budhanwi, an AJK cabinet minister. Most of the displaced from Datoot village have been given shelter at camps set up in colleges in the town of Nakyal, he added.
“We are requesting villagers to remain inside their houses as Indian troops are targeting the civilian population with small arms and heavy weapons.”
Naykal has been struck by Indian troops for two days consecutively. On Sunday, two people were killed and seven others were injured by Indian mortar shelling.
The Azad Kashmir (AJK) government has ordered a complete shutdown, even of local schools, within three kilometres of the LoC.
So far, six Pakistanis are reported to have been killed in firing across the heavily militarised ceasefire line since five Indian soldiers were killed on August 5.
