Pakistan Army has apparently withheld its objections on construction work in Keran village of frontier Kupwara district where developmental work partially resumed on Thursday after remaining suspended for four days.
Keran village, around 130 kilometres from Srinagar, is very close to line of Control (loC) that is mostly demarcated by Kishan Ganga rivulet whose opposite banks are manned by Indian and Pakistani troops. The Jammu & Kashmir Government has embarked on an ambitious project to develop the forlorn village as a model under Border Area Development Project (BADP). The construction work on a children park and community hall was underway when Pakistani troops asked the workers to discontinue work citing violation of border pact between India and Pakistan.
Deputy Commissioner Kupwara Itrat Hussain Rafiqi said that the construction work resumed on Thursday after Pakistani troops were conveyed that the developmental work was meant for civilian use and it had no strategic implications. Rafiqi, after receiving message from Keran police and local villagers about the border developments, had deputed a team of officials on Wednesday to the spot.
Sources said that an earth excavator was pressed into work and some manual labourers were engaged in construction. Their work was not hindered nor was any announcement made from across the loC. A journalist from Kupwara told The Pioneer that no flag meeting took place on the issue and Pakistan has not withdrawn the objections formally. “Some TV news crews had gone to the village and there is every possibility that Pakistani troops allowed the work to escape media focus,” he said. Rafiqi has said that local villagers had gathered at the Kishan Ganga banks and argued with the Pakistani troops that the construction work was meant for their welfare.