By Staff Reporter
MUZAFFARABAD: Four young cousins repairing a drinking-water pipeline near their village in Azad Kashmir were killed by a landmine on Monday, their families and officials said, rejecting Indian media reports that branded the men militants attempting to cross the Line of Control (LoC).
The men, aged between 20 and 30, came from Madarpur village in Hajira tehsil of Poonch district. Pakistani officials and relatives say they were civilians who had gone to repair a pipeline carrying spring water to their homes. Indian media, as usual, described them as militants, including a senior Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander, attempting to infiltrate through the Krishna Ghati sector.
The Directorate General of Public Relations (DGPR) in Azad Kashmir said, citing initial reports, that the men were at the site to repair a pipeline when a landmine that had drifted from the Indian side exploded. All four died on the spot, it said.
The statement added that unclear border demarcation near the LoC meant floating, unexploded landmines posed a persistent threat to civilians and livestock. It gave no further details.
Sardar Waheed Khan, the Poonch divisional commissioner, told Dawn that Indian Army personnel had planted the device.
The dead were named as Sardar Faizan Sagheer, Sardar Ishtiaq, Sardar Asim Rafiq and Sardar Waqas Sharif. Local sources identified Sagheer as an activist of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), which campaigns for an independent Jammu and Kashmir and has taken part in recent protests in the region.
A local journalist Sardar Zahid Tabassum said the four were the sons of his cousins and belonged to a single extended family. He said they had gone to a nearby spring to repair drinking-water pipes when an explosive device detonated, and rejected the claim that they were trying to cross the LoC.
He said the blast happened about one kilometre from the fence along the LoC, in difficult terrain where Indian military positions lie beyond the fence. Thick seasonal grass, he said, could have hidden explosive material from the young men.
Landmines along the LoC
The Indian accounts have not been consistent. NDTV and other outlets reported that four LeT militants had been killed during an infiltration attempt. The Press Trust of India, citing officials, initially reported that the identities and intentions of those caught in the blast were unclear, and that officials had yet to establish whether the group were suspected infiltrators or Pakistani security personnel.
The Kashmir Observer, citing Indian officials, reported that the group had reportedly been laying water pipes on the Pakistani side of the LoC, that a suspected improvised explosive device may have been triggered, and that any involvement of the dead in terrorism was not immediately known. Security forces sounded an alert and stepped up surveillance along the LoC.
Indian officials have themselves acknowledged extensive minefields in forward areas as part of anti-infiltration arrangements. In a separate incident on Monday, Indian Army personnel found two rusted landmines near the border fence in the Basoni area of the Mendhar sector, at about 8.25am and 12.10pm. Army specialists destroyed both in controlled explosions. Officials said heavy rain can dislodge buried mines and carry them into areas where they endanger civilians.
Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi, a former prime minister of Azad Kashmir, expressed grief and offered condolences to the families. He said India was killing Kashmiris not only in the occupied territory but along the LoC by planting improvised explosive devices and shooting people herding cattle, cutting fodder or collecting medicinal plants. He blamed the continuing deaths on the long delay in resolving the Kashmir dispute, which he attributed to India’s reluctance.
The deaths come days after Pakistan’s foreign ministry summoned India’s chargé d’affaires over the killing of two Pakistani civilians by Indian Border Security Force personnel in the Bedian sector, a case in which Indian media quoted security sources describing a foiled infiltration attempt and Islamabad rejected that label.
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