By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan summoned India’s chargé d’affaires on Saturday to protest the shooting of two Pakistani unarmed men by Indian border guards, in the latest flare-up between the nuclear-armed neighbours since their four-day military conflict last year.
The Foreign Office said personnel of India’s Border Security Force (BSF) used “unprovoked lethal force against unarmed civilians” on Friday in the Bedian sector of the international border, in Kasur district of Pakistan’s Punjab province. Two men were killed and a third was wounded.
The Foreign Office said it “categorically” refused any attempt to portray the dead as infiltrators.
Pakistani security sources named the dead as Azmat Rasool and Mohsin Jutt, both residents of Jattan Wali Haveli in Ladhar village. They said the three men, all from Ladhar, were unarmed and had moved only a few steps beyond a border pillar when the BSF opened fire without warning. They said none had tried to cross the border fence. The wounded man was taken to hospital.
The Foreign Office called the force used “wholly unjustified and grossly disproportionate” and said the incident was a serious violation of fundamental human rights, including the right to life. It raised wider concerns about the protection of civilians under international law.
Islamabad asked New Delhi to carry out an immediate, transparent and credible investigation, to take disciplinary and legal action against those found responsible, and to share its findings and any action taken with the Pakistani government. It also urged India to observe bilateral arrangements and established border procedures, to show maximum restraint, and to take steps to prevent a repeat. Indian media reports said a meeting between the BSF and the Pakistan Rangers was expected soon.
The shooting came a day after Pakistan’s military publicly challenged an Indian claim about a separate killing in Kashmir.
On Thursday, Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing, presented a man named Muhammad Asif to reporters in Rawalpindi. Days earlier, India’s Chinar Corps had announced an operation in the Korag area of Yousmarg, in Indian-occupied Kashmir. It said a Lashkar-e-Taiba militant had been killed. Indian media and officials identified the dead man as Asif, a former Pakistani special forces soldier, and linked him to a series of attacks, including the Pahalgam attack in April 2025.
Asif told the press conference that he was “alive and healthy”. Reports said he retired from the army in 2023 and now works for a private security company. Lt Gen Chaudhry described the Indian account as a “false flag” operation. Atta Tarar, who has served as Pakistan’s information minister, said that if Asif was alive, the Indian army must have killed someone else, possibly an innocent Kashmiri.
Asked at the briefing whether the dispute could lead to another armed conflict, Lt Gen Chaudhry said Pakistan’s armed forces were always ready and warned of a “very harsh” response to any Indian move.
The exchange comes against the backdrop of the worst fighting between the two nuclear-armed neighbours in decades. In May 2025, the Pahalgam attack, in which 26 people were killed, led to several days of missile, drone and artillery exchanges before a ceasefire was agreed.
Firing along the frontier has repeatedly cost civilian lives, particularly in villages close to the Working Boundary. In October 2016, the ISPR said two civilians, including a toddler, were killed and seven wounded in the Harpal, Pukhlian and Charwah sectors. In May 2018, local media reported that four members of one family were killed near Sialkot, with ten others hurt, during a wider flare-up that it said left 16 dead over six days. In October 2019, the Foreign Office said a 10-year-old boy was killed and 16 civilians seriously wounded in the Sharda sector. Injuries were reported in 2020 and 2021 before the two governments reaffirmed their ceasefire in February 2021. Three civilian deaths in two Line of Control incidents in 2023.
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