Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday said a confrontation between India and Pakistan could lead to a disaster of epic proportions, ANI reported. She hoped that peaceful means to resolve the issues between the nations will stand the ground even on a day when India said it carried out surgical strikes in Pakistan, while Islamabad denied the claims.
The state deputy chief minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nirmal Singh said, “We hope that Pakistan will learn something from these surgical strikes, hope they will stop their nonsense.” He confirmed the ongoing evacuation of Punjab villages located 10 km from the International Border with Pakistan. “We have asked people to move to safer places but we will see what happens tonight, we are prepared for any escalation,” he said.
Encounter underway in Poonch district
On the same day, the news agency reported an encounter between security personnel and militants in Mendhar sector of Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir. Details about the gunfight have not been revealed yet. More than ten policemen were injured when a vehicle carrying them to the encounter site met with an accident, Greater Kashmir reported.
Kashmir reacts to surgical strikes
People in Kashmir expressed their apprehension about the situation to Greater Kashmir. Zahoor Ahmad, 52, said,"Whether a knife falls on a melon or a melon falls on the knife, it is always the melon that gets cut." The businessman from north Kashmir's Ganderbal district said that in wars between India and Pakistan, the Kashmiris have always been the worst sufferers.
Professor Muzaffar Ahmad, a college principal, said, "I think it is just cross-border firing in which two Pakistani soldiers have been killed and nine others injured, which is being overplayed to satisfy bruised egos."
The Army, in a statement, said the strikes were carried out late on Thursday night to foil infiltration bids by militants, and they were conducted after receiving inputs from reliable sources about functional launchpads along the Line of Control.
This comes only days after 18 Indian soldiers were killed when militants attacks an Army facility in Kashmir’s Uri on September 18. While New Delhi believes that the attack was carried out by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed, Islamabad has vehemently denied any allegations linking the country to the attack. Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif went to the length to suggest that the attack could have been a fall out of alleged human rights violations to control protests and demonstrations in the Valley in the past two months since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen leader Burhan Wani on July 8.
Valley shut down for 84th consecutive day
The Valley remained shut for the 84th day on Thursday after separatists decided to extend the shutdown called by them till October 6, reported The Indian Express. Though schools and other educational institutions remained shut, a senior official told the newspaper that the local administration has relaxed curfew or similar restrictions across the region.
As many as 87 civilians have been killed during protests in the Valley since the death of Wani. More than 12,000 people have sustained serious injuries, with some left with irreparable damages from pellets fired by security personnel to control crowds in the region.
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