The Pakistan Army is resorting to intensified shelling across the line of Control in Jammu & Kashmir as part of its support to lashkar-e-Tayyeba’s “Year of Kashmir” campaign, said a senior Indian Army official on Sunday.
The month of July has seen greater ceasefire violations, which resulted in killings of 11 people, including nine soldiers and injuries to 16 others besides dislocation of thousands of people from the border areas of the State.
Pakistan-based Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), which was known as lashkar-e-Tayyeba earlier and which has now renamed itself as Tehreek Azadi Jammu & Kashmir (TAJK), had declared 2017 earlier as the “Year of Kashmir.”
The campaign is aimed at making the loC look “more active to highlight the Kashmir issue.”
The security agencies attributed Pakistan Army’s support to JuD’s campaign while pointing out the spurt of incidents of cross-loC shelling and firing by them in July. Amid one of the worst fatalities in recent times, the month also saw over 110 livestock falling prey to the incidents of shelling and firings by Pakistani Army in which nearly 35 structures, including over two dozen houses were damaged along the loC in Rajouri district alone.
In the wake of repeated firing and shelling by Pakistan, over 4,000 people from borders areas had to be shifted to safer places in the district. “The month has seen greater ceasefire violations along loC in the State. The aim was to engineer infiltrations and push in more and more militants in J&K,” said a senior Army officer.