'Stop firing, we want to conduct the funeral', J&K mosque tells Pak forces

Poonch: Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch has seen frequent ceasefire violations by Pakistan in the past week and during the past year. But on Friday, it witnessed an unprecedented funeral of a 16-year-old boy at the border.

According to a report in NDTV, 16-year-old Tanweer was killed during firing from Pakistani side on Friday. His family intended to bury him on their own land at the Noorkote village on the Line of Control. However, under intense firing from Pakistani forces, they could not go ahead with it.

But it was a local mosque which came to their rescue.

"You have killed a man in firing. Stop the firing. We want to conduct the funeral prayers," the mosque announced on their loudspeakers, said the report.

Meanwhile, the fresh rounds of firing after weeks of calm at the border has alarmed residents, triggering a wave of fear among those living close to the border. The locals have started moving to safer areas.

"There is lot of fear. Two to three bombs are dropping at one place, they cover a large area causing causalities of people and livestock, people are living in total fear," the report quoted a resident from a border village as saying.

2016 saw substantial migration of villagers from border areas into safer zones, and the trend will continue in 2017 if the ceasefire violations continue.

In the past two days, Pakistan has violated ceasefire twice in cases of unprovoked firing. The 2003 ceasefire agreement has become redundant over the past few years, especially after India’s surgical strikes across the Line of Control (LoC) on September 29, which resulted in Pakistan violating ceasefire over 300 times in the remainder of the year.