Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Nov 2: Minister for Public Health Engineering (PHE), Taj Mohi-ud-Din, and several Government officers had close shave today in forward village Churanda on the Line of Control (LoC) in North Kashmir’s Hajipeer sector of Uri in district Baramulla.
Pakistani troops fired at an Indian post before the visit of the Minister and local MLA, Taj Mohi-ud-Din, in the morning today. The villagers had to shift the venue of the function held to distribute ex-gratia relief to the families of the victims of last month’s firing in which 3 villagers were killed in Pakistani mortar firing. The venue was shifted at the eleventh hour for the safety and security of the Minister and other officials.
Sarpanch of Churanda village Laldin told Excelsior that Pakistani troops fired at an Army post in the village adjacent to the podium which they were erecting but shifted it to the safer place in the shade of a mountain away from the Pakistani machine guns.
However, a senior Army officer while confirming Pakistani firing on Army post in the village told Excelsior that he had already informed the Minister about danger of conducting a function inside the village so it was held in the shade of the mountain which is away from the Pakistani firing range.
The village Sarpanch said that the Pakistani firing is a regular feature in the villages for past one month now. On October 16, 3 villagers were killed when a mortar shell landed on a residential house inside the village.
The firing started last month when Army started renovating forward post ahead of winter. The villagers said that Pakistani troops blamed Army for constructing bunkers in the village while Army said they are renovating it as part of regular feature ahead of winter.
Army said that Pakistani troops are firing on Indian posts to help infiltrators in crossing the LoC in the sector. It may be mentioned here that two infiltrators were killed in Rustum area of Hajipeer sector on Tuesday when Army noticed their movement inside Indian territory in dense forests near Hatlanga village forests.
Despite the protests lodged by the army with their Pakistani counterparts at Aman Setu LoC crossing in Uri, Pakistani firing continued in Charunda. Army sources said that there was no response from Pakistan to the protests lodged by Army for violating ceasefire and killing 3 civilians. Sources, however, said that Pakistani troops have told the Army that they are not violating the ceasefire.
The ex-gratia relief function in the village passed off peacefully. The Minister conveyed his heartfelt condolences to the families. On the occasion, he disbursed ex-gratia relief of Rs one lakh to each of the next of kin of those killed in the incident.
While speaking on the occasion, the Minister gave assurance to the villagers who had gathered on the occasion of full cooperation of the Government. “Entire country is behind you and entire Army is with you at this hour. You don’t have to worry”, he told villagers.
Responding to the demands of the people, the Minister said Government would look into the possibility of setting up a high school in the locality and also provide an ambulance to the village for using it at the time of emergency.
Deputy Commissioner, Baramulla, G A Khawaja, SSP Baramulla Anand Jain and other senior officers of district administration accompanied the Minister.
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