Indian ceasefire violations increased after 2014, envoys informed

ISLAMABAD: Director General of the Inter Services Public Relations Major General Babar Iftikhar briefed the foreign diplomats visiting the Line of Control (LoC) on Thursday that the ceasefire violations (CFVs) by India have increased since 2014.

"Human rights situation in occupied Kashmir is alarming,” the director-general for the Inter-Services Public Relations (DG ISPR) Major General Babar Iftikhar told the envoys during a visit to the Jora sector along the LoC.

Indian forces were deliberately targeting civilians on the LoC, Maj Gen Iftikhar told the delegation of ambassadors, defence attachés, and the representatives of international organisations stationed in the federal capital from some two dozen countries.

He informed them that India was carrying out the CFVs to divert the world’s attention from Kashmir — the Muslim-majority Himalayan region which had its special status under Articles 370 and 35A revoked by New Delhi more than a whopping 400 days ago — as well as what was happening to minorities in the South Asian nation.

Representative of UN WFP also at LoC

The military’s spokesperson also apprised the envoys of the Indian forces' use of heavy weapons in the violations.

The delegation of defence attachés, ambassadors, and international organisations' representatives from 24 countries are on a visit to the LoC to get a firsthand account of the situation in the area.

The diplomats — including representatives from Azerbaijan, Australia, Bosnia, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Poland, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, and the European Union — were also slated to meet the victims of Indian aggression and those targeted by unprovoked firing from New Delhi's forces during their visit.

The representatives of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) have also left for the LoC. The delegation of ambassadors and defence attachés from 24 countries would personally review the LoC violations by the Indian forces.

2,158 ceasefire violations

It is noteworthy that India has banned foreign ambassadors, as well as the UN's observer missions and the media, from visiting on its side of the LoC.

Earlier, the Foreign Office had said India has "been continuously targeting civilian populated areas with artillery fire, heavy-calibre mortars, and automatic weapons" along the LoC and the Working Boundary (WB).

So far in 2020, India has committed 2,158 ceasefire violations, martyring 17 people and leaving 168 civilians with serious injuries, it had added, terming them "egregious violations of international law” that were part of New Delhi's "consistent attempts to escalate the situation along the LoC” and a threat to regional peace and security.

Pakistan has been consistently summoning senior Indian diplomats to register its strong protests over New Delhi's CFVs along the LoC that often result in serious injuries to and martyrdom of innocent civilians.