Pakistan summons Indian envoy, serves demarche

ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI: India and Pakistan today continued to trade accusations over ceasefire violations with Pakistani government summoning the Indian envoy to serve a demarche on yesterday's incident, which Indian authorities said was a "controlled response" to "unprovoked" firing by the other side.

Pakistan Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani summoned High Commissioner Sharat Sabharwal to lodge "a strong protest on the repeated, unacceptable and unprovoked attacks on Pakistani soldiers by the Indian army" and sought "thorough investigation" by the Indian government.

Officials of the Pakistan Foreign Office told PTI that Jilani handed over a strongly-worded demarche to Sabharwal.

In New Delhi, the official spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs said Sabharwal was "called to the Foreign Office where he met Jilani and issued a note verbale on an incident which is said to have occurred on January 10."

He also said Pakistan is claiming that one of their soldiers was killed in the incident yesterday.

Sabharwal told Jilani that there was "unprovoked firing from Pakistan (along the LoC) in Mendhar sector and there was a controlled response from our side," the MEA spokesperson said.

The Indian envoy also stressed the need for holding the sanctity of LoC and adherence of the Simla Agreement to sort out bilateral issues, he said.

A statement issued by the Pakistan Foreign Office said Jilani "asked the Indian government to thoroughly investigate the repeated violations of the ceasefire along the Line of Control by Indian troops and also take necessary steps to ensure their non-recurrence."

"We called the Indian High Commissioner to convey our concerns over continued violations (of the ceasefire) and urged him to exercise maximum restraint," Jilani told journalists hours after the Foreign Office lodged a protest with the Indian envoy.

Describing recent incidents along the LoC as "very unfortunate", Jilani said Pakistan had "invested very heavily in building peace and stability with India" in the past few months.

"These incidents vitiate the atmosphere and cast a shadow over the peace process," he said.