ISLAMABAD: The federal government has asked the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) government to prepare a contingency plan for evacuation of villages near the Line of Control (LoC).
The decision to relocate LoC villagers has been taken amid increasing frequency and intensity of Indian shelling on the civilian population in AJK. At least 26 civilians have been killed and over 100, including women and children, wounded in Indian shelling, according to an official tally.
The AJK 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 AJK government, security officials and officials of the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan.
The AJK 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 AJK government told 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 said 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 told The Express Tribune.
Former AJK prime minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan said 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 [untoward] situation. We have faced Indian aggression in the past and repaid them in the same coin.”
Premier Sharif is likely to visit AJK to review arrangements, said officials at his office.
Premier Sharif said 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 (IOK).
“There is an indigenous uprising against Indian occupation, and the Indian government is failing to read the writing on the wall. By creating tensions on the LoC, Indian forces are uselessly trying to divert the (world’s) attention from the Kashmir issue,” a statement issued by the PM House said.
“We are fully capable of defending our soil against any aggression. Indian forces have resorted to escalating tensions on the LoC only to detract world’s attention from grave human rights situation in IOK.”
Expressing grief and sorrow over the loss of lives in the latest LoC ceasefire violation by Indian troops, he said: “It is extremely unfortunate that Indian forces have continuously violated ceasefire agreement on the LoC in recent days. Indian forces have inflicted unspeakable atrocities against unarmed and innocent people of IOK.”
Sharif said the people who sacrificed their lives in defending the motherland would always be remembered and held in highest esteem.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/1231409/ajk-govt-given-heads-evacuation-loc-villages/
Comments are closed.