KL News Network
Srinagar
Government of Pakistan has asked the Pakistan Administered Kashmir (PaK) Government to prepare a contingency plan for evacuation of villages near the Line of Control (LoC), The Express Tribune reported.
The report quoting official tally said, “The decision to relocate LoC villagers has been taken amid increasing frequency and intensity of Indian shelling on the civilian population in PaK. At least 26 civilians have been killed and over 100, including women and children, wounded in Indian shelling.”
The report added that the PaK government was given the heads-up at a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday where attendees included representatives of the PaK government, security officials and officials of the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan.
The PaK government got to work immediately. It started making arrangements to relocate civilians from villages near the LoC and directed district administrations to coordinate with the military authorities.
“The extraordinary aggression from the other side [of LoC] has necessitated extraordinary measures,” a source in the PaK government was quoted by The Express Tribune.
All hospitals in villages near the LoC have been put on high alert, he added. “We have a contingency plan for relocating civilians. If the situation warrants, the plan will be activated.”
Officials told The Express Tribune villagers in vulnerable areas near the LoC such as Kale, Kotli, Poonch, Rawlakot, Khoi Ratta, Samani and Bhimber Sectors, Neelum and Leepa valleys, and adjoining areas would be shifted to safe locations.
“Normally, civilians living in a few villages near the LoC are relocated during hostilities, but considering the extent of Indian aggression, this time the evacuation could be on a larger scale. Civilians are likely to suffer,” another source was quoted by The Express Tribune.
Former PaK prime minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan told The Express Tribune Pakistani troops were exercising restraint to avoid civilian causalities when they retaliate against Indian aggression, but the Indian side was deliberately targeting civilian population on the Pakistani side. “We are ready to respond to any situation. We have faced Indian aggression in the past and repaid them in the same coin.”
Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharief is likely to visit PaK to review arrangements.
Meanwhile Sharif has said that India’s aggression on the LoC was a part of Delhi’s designs to detract world’s attention from “unabated human rights violations in the Indian Occupied Kashmir”.
