Pakistan says one soldier killed after Indian army opens fire in Kashmir

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s military said on Sunday its soldier had been killed in an “unprovoked cease-fire violation” by the Indian army along the Line of Control (LoC), which divides the disputed territory of Kashmir, and that its troops responded in a “befitting” manner.
“Indian Army troops unprovoked ceasefire violation along LOC in Kotkotera Sector. During intense exchange of fire, Naik Dil Faraz, age 34 years, resident of Village Panjkot Muzaffarabad, embraced shahadat [martyrdom] fighting valiantly in the line of duty,” Pakistan military’s media wing, the ISPR, said in a statement.
It added that Pakistan had “responded befittingly to Indian provocation, causing substantial damage to Indian post in men and material.”
Tensions have been high between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.
Earlier this week, the Pakistan military took a group of foreign diplomats, including the Saudi Arabian ambassador, on a visit to the LOC to show them the damages caused by “Indian firing and shelling.”
India and Pakistan routinely accuse each other of unprovoked attacks along the tense Kashmir frontier, with Islamabad saying that New Delhi had violated a 2003 cease-fire agreement “more than 2,000 times this year alone.”
The disputed region of Kashmir is split between the two countries which each claim in full but rule in part.
Earlier on Friday, while addressing the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Prime Minister Imran Khan warned the international community against the threat of Islamophobia, criticizing India’s Hindu nationalist government “for sponsoring prejudice against Islam and encouraging hatred toward Muslims.”
Calling India “the one country in the world where state sponsors Islamophobia,” the Pakistani prime minister maintained that “willful provocations and incitement to hate and violence must be universally outlawed.”