Islamabad: A three-member team from the UN Military Observers Group for India and Pakistan on Saturday visited the border area where eight Pakistani civilians were reportedly killed in firing by Indian troops, officials said.
An exchange of fire, one of the bloodiest incidents on the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir and the working boundary near the eastern Pakistani city of Sialkot, took place on Friday.
Nearly 50 civilians including 22 women were also reportedly injured on the Pakistani side, while India reported four were killed and several wounded on its side of Kashmir in the incident.
Spokesman of Punjab Rangers Major Waheed Bukhari said the UN observers inspected the damage caused during the exchange of fire.
The Pakistani foreign affairs ministry had summoned Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan T.C.A. Raghavan on Friday and lodged a strong protest, blaming Indians for “unprovoked ceasefire violations”.
Raghavan was told that India must abide by the 2003 ceasefire agreement between the two countries.
Last week, the first high-level peace talks in years between the two country’s National Security Advisers were cancelled after a dispute over agenda for the talks.
Meanwhile, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif yesterday said Pakistan will respond “with full force” if India continues to target its civilian population, after 13 people died when rivals traded fire across the border.
Nine died near Sialkot in Pakistan’s Punjab province, and more than 40 were wounded on Friday.
“We will counter this situation on all levels. If war is forced on us we will take good care of them,” Defence Minister Khawaja Asif told AFP.
“Absolutely we have the right to retaliate, and retaliate in kind, retaliate in full force,” Asif said after he visited the wounded in hospital.
He added: “If India crosses the international border and aggression is committed again, we will defend our homeland and inflict much more damage than 1965,” Asif said.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would raise the issue of continued aggression at a UN General Assembly session next month, Asif said.
— with AFP inputs
