At a meeting with the Pakistan Deputy High Commissioner, India on Friday lodged a “strong protest” against the “recent increase in incidents of ceasefire violations” including on the international border.
“The Deputy High Commissioner was called to the Ministry of External Affairs and a strong protest was conveyed over incidents of grave and unprovoked firing across the International Border by Pakistan, including the firing of rockets in the Amritsar sector of the International Border on the night of January 8-9. The government has asked Pakistan to take all necessary steps to prevent recurrence of such incidents,” Ministry spokesperson Vishnu Prakash said in a statement.
India complains of over a dozen cases of firing to cover infiltration attempts since the beginning of this year. It is particularly perturbed at firing across the undisputed international border as opposed to the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir which is contested by both sides.
However, the firing near the international border crossing point at Wagah in Punjab did not lead to any casualties and, in fact, one of the ‘rockets’ failed to explode.