The Army on Thursday denied Pakistan’s claim that 11 Indian soldiers had been killed along the Line of Control on November 14, the same day it had alleged that seven Pakistani soldiers had died in cross-border firing. The Army’s Northern Command said there had been no casualties on the Indian side during firing by Pakistan on November 14,15 and 16, calling the neighbouring country’s claim false.
Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif on Wednesday said the Indian soldiers died after their troops “responded to unprovoked firing”. “The Indian Army should man up and accept their losses,” Sharif said, adding that Pakistan accepts its casualties unlike India. The military chief further said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been informed that “aggressive actions will not bear any results”, according to Dawn.
On November 14, Islamabad had alleged that Indian troops had violated the ceasefire and killed seven of its soldiers along the LoC in Kashmir’s Bhimber sector the previous night. The Pakistani government had summoned Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale to lodge a formal complaint.
This was the first time that Pakistan had admitted to casualties on its side. In September, the country had rebuffed claims of the surgical strikes carried out by the Indian Army along the LoC as “cross-border firing”. In October, too, Islamabad had denied claims by the Indian Border Security Force that it had killed seven Pakistani Rangers. Reports of ceasefire violations by Pakistan have increased since the surgical strikes were conducted on September 29.
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