At least 19 wounded in cross-LoC shelling by Indian forces

Heavy Indian shelling from across the Line of Control (LoC) left at least 19 persons, including women and children, wounded in different parts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Wednesday, officials said.The shelling started in Khuiratta sector of Kotli district at about 2:30pm and was the “heaviest” in many months, according to Khuiratta Assistant Commissioner (AC) Ali Asghar. “The Indian troops indiscriminately targeted houses and educational institutions without an iota of shame,” he said, as he spoke to Dawn from Seri village, amid the thunder of falling shells. According to AC Asghar, seven persons, including three women, were injured in Seri village, while a teenager was injured in Janjot Bahadur village. He identified the victims in Seri as Munir Begum, 50, Somia Zubair, 28, Moeen Riaz, 22, Sheharyar Jabir, 22, and his cousin Aamer Suleman, 21, Anwar Begum, 80, and Abdul Qadeer, 25. The victim in Jan- jot Bahadur village was identified as Danish Rauf, 16. District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital Kotli superintendent Dr Tariq Mehmood told Dawn that most of the injured persons had been brought to his facility. “Some of them are in critical condition,” he said. AC Asghar added that apart from human casualties, three buffaloes of one Mistri Tofeeq were also killed in the neighbouring Tain village. He said that the shelling had also damaged many houses. The assistant commissioner revealed that some shells landed on the premises of Girls Inter College and Boys High School Seri where students were appearing in 10th-grade exams under the AJK Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) in the second (afternoon) shift.“Panic spread at both centres and students ran out for their lives. Fortunately, no one was wounded,” he said. Kotli’s deputy commissioner Abdul Hameed Kiani told Dawn that he had written to the BISE chairperson to fix some other date for Wednesday’s paper. Subsequently, exam centres in Seri had also been shifted to Gora Balyal and Syedpur villages, he added. Also read: Valley of death: Being young and restless in KashmirIn Poonch district, heavy shelling started in Battal sector of Hajira district at about 4:30pm, and left 10 persons wounded in different villages, according to deputy commissioner Raja Tahir Mumtaz. A day before that, three persons were wounded in Charhoi and Khuiratta sectors of the same district.