SRINAGAR: Authorities have closed all the educational institutions within the five kms from International Border in Jammu after the rival armies resumed fire exchanges. Police said Pakistan started pounding the Arnia belt early Thursday.
Arnia had witnessed some sort of silence after almost five days of shelling exchanges in which it had emerged the main target. The resumption of the shelling from across indicates that the belt, falling in R S Pora sector, is still in crisis.
On September 17, a woman was killed and five others were injured when Pakistani shells landed in the border town.
Reports said BSF has retaliated the fire. Authorities, in the meanwhile, have closed the schools.
The resumption of firing is taking place at a time when the two countries have locked horns diplomatically with each other in New York where the UN General Assembly is under way. Pakistan’s new prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that India will have to settle the “core issue” before any progress in overall relations is considered. He will address the Assembly tonight.
“…I think we need to engage on core issues,” Abbasi was quoted saying an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). “Those have to be resolved first, and Kashmir is the basic core issue there…in the recent past the aggression from India has continued unabated, and that is not acceptable.” He has talked about “normal relations” with India, on basis of “trust and respect”.
On Wednesday, a soldier was killed and three others injured in a sniper fire by Pakistani troops at Keran sector along the Line of Control (LoC), defence sources said. The slain was identified as Rajesh Khatri of Dailekh Nepal. The injured are being treated at Srinagar.
(Photographs used in this story lack any direct relevance)
