Pakistan accuses India of increased shelling

chirikot sector — Pakistan’s military this week said there had been an escalation in firing and shelling by Indian forces across the de facto border that separates the disputed Kashmir region.

Major-General Amer Ahsan Nawaz, the commander of Pakistani troops in Azad Kashmir, accused the Indian military of trying to distract attention from unrest in Indian-administered Kashmir.

“If you compare it to the past years, there is a definite increase in this year,” he told reporters on Wednesday near the Line of Control (LoC), across which the two sides’ militaries have faced off for decades.

The Muslim-majority Himalayan region has been at the heart of more than 70 years of animosity since the partition of India in 1947. Two of the three wars they have fought since have been over Kashmir.

Pakistan’s military said that in 2019, when ceasefire violations hit a more than decade-high peak, there were just over 3,500 incidents. Already in 2020 there have been almost 1,800 violations, the Pakistan military said, adding that the surge during the more volatile summer season since June had been more pronounced than in previous years. —