Senate Defence Committee visits border villages

Sialkot : Chairman Senate Defence Committee, Senator Mushahid Hussain, has urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to strongly protest unprovoked Indian shelling on Pakistani civilians at the forthcoming SAARC visit in Kathmandu, Nepal, next week. He made these comments during a visit to border villages of Sialkot, which had suffered Indian shelling, during the first ever visit to the Working Boundary by any Parliamentary Committee. Senator Mushahid Hussain was accompanied by Senator Mohsin Leghari, also a member of the Senate Defence Committee.

During this visit, the Senate Defence Committee received a detailed, two hour briefing from Director General, Pakistan Rangers, Major General Khan Tahir, on the Indian aggression across the 193 kilometre Working Boundary, thereby raising tensions all across the Indo-Pakistan border of 1187 kilometres in the Punjab.  Later, Senator Mushahid Hussain and Senator Mohsin Leghari also toured the border villages affected by the Indian shelling, including Dhamala, which is just 60 meters from the nearest Indian military post. They also met officers and jawans of the Pakistan Rangers and appreciated their dedication, morale and courage in defending the homeland against Indian shelling. Together they raised slogans of ‘Pakistan Zindabad, Pakistan Rangers Zindabad, Quaid-e-Azam Zindabad’.

Talking to the media, Senator Mushahid Hussain said ever since the Modi regime took office, there had been a distinct change in the tone, language, actions and attitude of India, terming it ‘aggressive and hawkish reflecting an anti-Pakistan mindset rooted in religious extremism’.

While condemning the immature and irresponsible statements of Modi and his cabinet ministers regarding Pakistan, Senator Mushahid Hussain said this harsh language was followed up by equally harsh actions like lobbing of  a record 31,872 mortar shells on Pakistan during October, which was higher than the number of mortars fired by India on Pakistan during the entire 1971 War!

Senator Mushahid Hussain praised the courage and professionalism of the Pakistan Rangers, terming them as the ‘first line of defence of Pakistan’. He also appreciated the morale and resilience of the people of Pakistan, whom he personally visited in their damaged houses and who he said had withstood ‘nothing short of state terrorism of India which is directly targeting civilians resulting in 12 martyrs and 38 wounded’.

He urged Pakistan to strongly raise its voice at all international fora, including the upcoming SAARC Summit, and he said that ‘India heating up the Eastern border of Pakistan weakens and undermines Pakistan’s campaign against terrorism which the Pakistan Army is so valiantly and relentlessly waging on its Western border.’

Senator Mushahid Hussain also said he raised Indian border violations with the new Chief of UN Military Observers Group, Major General Diyali Johnson Sakyi, during a meeting in Islamabad.

Senators Mushahid and Leghari also offered Fatiha with families at the houses of those who were martyred by the Indian shelling.