[DAWN] A young boy and a woman were killed while another woman was maimed in two different areas of Azad Jammu and Kashmire (AJK) on Sunday amid "unprovoked shelling" by Indian troops from across the restive Line of Control (LoC), officials said.According to a statement by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Pakistain Army troops responded effectively and targeted those posts which initiated fire. Intermittent firing is ongoing, the statement added.
The casualties occurred in Maal Gujran and Sehra villages in Khuiratta and Hajira subdivisions of Kotli and Poonch districts, respectively, where Indian troops resorted to shelling from 10am onwards, officials said.
In Hajira, Indian troops started shelling in Battal sector at about 10:45am "without any provocation, catching the residents off guard", said Javed Iqbal, a local police official.
"A mortar shell went
kaboom!in the courtyard of a house, killing a woman on the spot and critically injuring her daughter in law," he said, adding that continued shelling has kept people of the area indoors.
Rubia Kanwal, Pooch district disaster management officer (DDMO), identified the dear departed as 45-year-old Nasreen Begum, wife of Chaudhry Wazir Hussain, and the injured woman as 24-year-old Sonia Nadeem.