Islamabad
Pakistan Army claimed on Friday that it killed five Indian soldiers when it destroyed their post on the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir in retaliation against Indian attack on a school van, killing the driver.
Five Indian soldiers have been killed and many injured, Director General Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Asif Gafoor tweeted along with a video showing the reported targeting of the Indian post.
Gafoor asserted that Pakistan will always respond to “Indian terrorism against innocent citizens.”
Army official said that the Indian post near Tatta Pani Village was “destroyed” late Thursday after Indian troops hit a school van in Battal sector in Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, killing its driver on the spot and traumatising students.
Haleema Shaheen, a student of Government Degree College who was inside the van when bullets struck the vehicle told reporters that van driver Sarfaraz Ahmad was killed but all the students escaped unhurt.
The van was bringing back students from Mandhol to their homes in the Dharamsal area, where it was targeted by Indian troops at about 1:30pm, according to a report published in daily Dawn. Mandhol and Dharamsal villages, located on the bank of River Poonch, are just a stone’s throw away from the Indian army post.
The attack on the Pakistani school van came days after India said gunmen allegedly belonging to the militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad attacked Sunjuwan military station in Jammu which left 10 people dead including five Indian soldiers.
On February 4, a top Indian minister said he has directed Indian forces to fire countless bullets in retaliation of one bullet that comes from Pakistan’s side. “I have given standing orders to our forces to shoot limitless bullets to retaliate a single fire on our territory by the Pakistani forces,” Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh was reported as saying by NDTV.
After the attack on the school van by Indian troops, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry summoned Indian diplomat J.P. Singh on Thursday and lodged a protest with India.
On Friday, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi condemned the targeting of a school van by India. “Such unprovoked and unethical acts have exposed the real face of India, which continues to violate the Geneva Convention by targeting innocent schoolchildren,” Abbasi said.
Pakistan has urged the international community to take notice of the attack on the school van. “Indian unethical and unprofessional approach across LOC continues terrorising civilians. Targeted van carrying schoolchildren in Battal sector [is] in violation of Geneva Convention & ceasefire understanding” ISPR statement said.
Denouncing Indian aggression, President of Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir, Sardar Masood Khan, has appealed to the United Nations Military Observer Group for India and Pakistan, or UNMOGIP, to investigate the incident.
Pakistan and India often exchange fire across their disputed border in Kashmir, but it was one of the rare incidents in which a school van came under attack.
