Bitter Eid On Border: Pakistan Opens Unprovoked Firing, Refuses To Accept BSF's Sweets

Deputy Inspector General MF Farooqui told Mail Today. Areas targeted After the guns fell silent on International Border (IB) - where India had inflicted heavy casualty following Pakistani Rangers targeting Indian villagers and BSF posts with sniper fire and mortar shelling - residential areas in the Poonch sector on LoC were targeted by Pakistan Army. Three of the five civilians hurt were women - identified as Rubina Kousar, Begum Jan and Parveen Akhtar - from Shahpur Qasba village. The officials said the firing started around 1.45 pm when the locals were celebrating Eid at the shrine of Muslim saint Sain Mira. Firing was also reported from the Nowshera sector in the Rajouri district on Friday night. The Indian Army reciprocated and the firing continued till midnight. Repeated firing The officials said Pakistan has violated ceasefire at least six times in the last few days. There was retaliatory fire from the Indian side which continued well past 3 pm. The Indian authorities see a clear pattern in the firing from across the border which they claim is directed at disrupting any move to restore normalcy in the bilateral relations. The Army was on the alert as it was expecting the border to flare up in wake of the talks between Indian and Pakistan prime ministers in Russia earlier this month. The officials said that there has been a pattern that whenever talks take place, ceasefire violations go up. New Delhi had registered strong protest with Islamabad and sought that shelling be halted immediately. New Delhi also reacted strongly to Pakistani demand that the UN should probe into the ceasefire violations on LoC and International Border. Pakistan had lodged complaint with the United Nations Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan protesting ceasefire violations. India does not recognise any UN role in the India-Pakistan relations and slammed Islamabad for the move. An MEA spokesperson said that UNMOGIP has no role in this matter following the conversion of ceasefire line into LoC in 1972. Meanwhile, a slide in Indo-Pak relations also gave the Opposition a chance to attack the NDA government. Congress leader Manish Tewari said that the joint statement issued by India and Pakistan in Ufa was falling apart even before the ink had dried up.