A day after Pakistan returned an Indian Border Security Force
(BSF) soldier as a good will gesture, authorities in Azad Jammu and Kashmir
(AJK) received the body of a villager killed by the Indian troops
along the Line of Control (LoC).
Kala Khan,
42, had gone missing while cutting grass for his animals near the unmarked
dividing line outside his Darra Sher Khan village in Poonch district on
Wednesday. He was later reported to have been captured by an Indian army
petrol.
However,
despite reports in the Pakistani media to this effect, there was no word from
the Indian side about their army’s belligerence.
“This
morning we received intimation from the Indian held side that they want to
handover a body. They however did not provide any information beforehand about
the identity of the deceased,” Malik Ayub Awan, assistant commissioner Hajira,
told this scribe.
Mr Awan was
part of an official team which received the body at Tetrinote-Chakan da Bagh
crossing point in Poonch division at about 3:30 pm on Saturday.
From the
Indian held side, an army officer of the rank of a lieutenant and some others
in civvies had arrived to deliver the body, placed in a wooden box and draped
in a plastic sheet, he said.
According to
Mr Ayub, the body bore gunshot wounds at ribs, chest and abdomen and was
swollen, suggesting that the death had taken place 2-3 days ago.
Initially,
relatives of the deceased – his cousin and nephew - refused to identify him as
their kin, but an old wound on his left arm, mentioned on his CNIC as identification
mark, helped them recognise him, he said.
On being
asked by the AJK authorities, the Indian army official maintained that he had
been handed over the body at a hospital in (occupied) Poonch city in the
morning for transference to the Pakistani side.
“I don’t
know where it has been brought from and when,” Mr Ayub quoted him as telling
them.
He said the
Indian official did not give them any document from any civilian authority in
occupied Kashmir, including the Poonch city hospital doctors, about the death
of Kala Khan.
Deputy
Commissioner Poonch Chaudhry Fareed told this scribe that the
postmortem report conducted in Hajira had revealed that Kala Khan was shot from
point blank range.
“This
obviously suggests that he was first captured and then shot dead in cold blood,”
he said.
Meanwhile,
AJK Prime Minister Chaudhry Abdul Majeed has strongly condemned the killing of
an innocent civilian by Indian troops, terming it yet another manifestation of
Indian army’s aggressiveness in the disputed Kashmir region.
From inside
the occupied territory to the areas along the ceasefire line (LoC) the Kashmiris
were falling victim to the belligerence of Indian troops without any letup, he said.
“On the one
hand Pakistani soldiers rescue Indian soldier while on the other hand Indian
soldiers shoot innocent and unarmed Kashmiri civilians dead. This is enough to
prove that the Indian army has least regard for human rights,” he said.
It may be
mentioned here that the latest incident at the LoC was reminiscent of killing
of four Neelum valley residents by the Indian army in the same fashion exactly
one year ago. The victims who were plucking a medicinal plant along the LoC
were whisked across by Indian army and later killed as “Pakistani intruders.”
The claim was however disputed even by some senior Indian army officials as
well as a section of Indian press…...Tariq Naqash
