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Pak. claims Indian troops targeted media team

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

Islamabad Aug. 31. Pakistan has claimed that Indian troops on Thursday targeted a media team travelling to a Pakistani forward position in the Gultari sector in Pak. Occupied Kashmir.

The Press Secretary to the Pakistan President and Director-General of the Inter Services Public Relations, Rashid Qureshi, had alleged at a news conference last week that the Indian troops tried to capture a Pakistan military camp in the sector and resorted to `aerial bombing'. He had termed that the action took place the day the U.S. Deputy Secretary, Richard Armitage, was in New Delhi as "highly escalatory'' and provocative to justify the troop build-up on the border.

The state-run news agency, Associated Press of Pakistan, in a dispatch from the spot claimed the `enemy' (India) troops spotted the team of reporters while they were heading towards the Haider Post on the LoC to see the crater caused by the Indian air force bombing last week.

``One of the artillery shells exploded just yards away from a PTV World's cameraman and a news reporter near the post which overlooks Indian forward position'', it said.

The APP quoted the Army Major commanding the post as saying that " afternoon firing in this area is rare, if not unusual, but today (Thursday) it was certainly very extensive''. It said the Indians normally shell the area after sunset without a break.

It quoted him as saying that the Indians must have spotted the team when it was travelling towards the forward position. The visit was arranged to show the journalists the `crater caused by the Indian aircraft bombing'.

``The bombing was surely targeted as Indians tried to prevent the newsmen from reaching the spot from where they could actually see the crater following Indian air raids between the night of August 22-23," the APP quoted the Army official.

The news agency claimed that Indians again resorted to targeted bombing after they spotted that team when it was returning to the main base from the forward position.

The Area Brigade Commander, Firzok Attaullah, told the visiting reporters that "it is the most escalatory incident till to date.'' He also briefed them about the Indian attack on the Haider Post between the night of August 22-23. According to him, around 70 Indian troops attacked the post and launched their aircraft when failed to push back the Pakistani troops defending the post.

According to APP, the two observers from the U.N. Military Observer Group for India and Pakistan also visited the Gultari sector on Wednesday for a first-hand assessment of the alleged incident.

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