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| Thursday, 11 December 2003 |
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Fencing of LoC by India may hamper peace efforts: Pakistan army MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, Wednesday (AFP) The fencing of the de facto border in disputed Kashmir by New Delhi could setback the unfolding peace process between India and Pakistan, a European parliamentary delegation was told by Pakistan's military. "If India does not discontinue fencing of the Line of Control it may cause a setback to the efforts for peace," local commander Brigadier Iftikhar Ali Khan told the visiting seven-member delegation in the town of Chakothi, some 60 kilometres (37 miles) south of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The delegation arrived in Pakistani Kashmir Monday. The group visited a Kashmiri refugee camp on the outskirts of the state capital the same day and on Tuesday was flown to Chakothi which saw heavy losses before the November 26 ceasefire. "Fencing of the LoC is a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions on Kashmir as well as the Karachi Agreement (between India and Pakistan)," Khan told the delegation, adding that Pakistani troops were "watching the situation patiently." "The international community should force India to respect the agreements." The Indian army says it is fencing a 460-kilometer stretch of the disputed border to prevent Islamic rebels from crossing into its zone of the divided state. Khan briefed the delegation on the figures of physical and material losses caused by cross border bombardment in Pakistani Kashmir before the ceasefire that went into effect. "From 1999 to November 25, at least 417 civilians were killed and around 1,648 injured in Azad ('free') Kashmir in Indian shelling," he said, adding there had been 4,100 ceasefire violations by India since 1990. After the recent truce "the situation on LoC is completely peaceful and there has been no ceasefire violations by either side," he said. |
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