Pakistan heavily shelled 15 border outposts and hamlets in Arnia sector of Jammu and Kashmir early Sunday even as it wrote to UN chief Ban Ki-moon blaming India for the escalation in border clashes and sought UN intervention on Kashmir.
The shelling, the first since Thursday, injured three people and ends a pause in fighting that has already killed 19 civilians in the two countries in the worst skirmishes in a decade. The Pakistan foreign ministry has claimed that Indian firing over the past month has killed 12 and injured 52 of its civilians.
In the letter to Ban, foreign affairs adviser to Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif, Sartaj Aziz, accused India of ‘deliberate and unprovoked violations of the ceasefire agreement and cross-border firing’. He also appealed for UN’s assistance in resolving the dispute with India over the status of Kashmir.
Though there was no formal reaction from New Delhi, India has long maintained that disputes between it and Pakistan should be resolved bilaterally under the framework of the Shimla agreement and Lahore declaration.
India also considers the UN observer group on Kashmir to have outlived its utility and has criticised Pakistan for depending on a ‘tool of a bygone era’ to address the problems of the present.
Read:Pak writes to UN chief; asks intervention on Kashmir
The latest round of shelling by Pakistan comes a week after five people were killed in Arnia.
{{/usCountry}}The latest round of shelling by Pakistan comes a week after five people were killed in Arnia.
{{/usCountry}}“Flat trajectory weaponry fire started at 8.10pm (Saturday) on three border posts in Arnia and continued till early morning,” a BSF spokesperson said.
The fresh firing has forced authorities to drop any moves to allow the nearly 30,000 people living in government relief camps to return to their homes.
In Pics: Living on the edge