TEHRAN (Iran News) Senior officers of the Pakistan Embassy, members of the Pakistani community, and a large number of Iranian media representatives participated in the event, reaffirming their moral and emotional bond with the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

H.E. Muhammad Mudassir Tipu, Ambassador of Pakistan to Tehran, reiterated Pakistan’s unwavering and principled support for the Kashmiri cause and their inalienable right to determine their own future. He highlighted that the people of IIOJK have been enduring decades of Indian state-sponsored terrorism, military siege, and systematic violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.

Ambassador Tipu reaffirmed the commitment of the Government of Pakistan to continue extending political, moral, and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri brothers and sisters until the realization of their right to self-determination. He called upon the international community, including the United Nations and other global organizations, to take concrete measures to end the ongoing oppression in IIOJK and to ensure that India abides by its international obligations and the UN Security Council resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir.

On the occasion, the messages of the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Mr. Asif Ali Zardari, and the Prime Minister, Mr. Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, were read out. Both leaders reaffirmed Pakistan’s steadfast commitment to the Kashmir cause and paid tribute to the sacrifices of the Kashmiri people.

Speakers at the event strongly condemned the continuing atrocities perpetrated against the innocent people of Kashmir. A photo exhibition was also organized to shed light on the decades-long suffering of the Kashmiris and to expose the brutal use of force by the Indian authorities in the occupied region.

The event concluded with prayers for the martyrs of Kashmir and a renewed pledge by Pakistan and its people to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their Kashmiri brethren until the realization of their legitimate right to self-determination.

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In Kashmir, on Indian part, the JKLF on Thursday called for a general strike on Feb. 9 and Feb. 11 to observe the anniversary of the death of Afzal Guru, and then that of its founder Maqbool Bhat.

Shops and businesses were shut on Sunday, while there was little traffic on the roads in Srinagar and other parts of Indian-held Kashmir.

Indian troops have erected iron barricades and laid concertina wire in parts of the region to block roads, with armed soldiers in full riot gear patrolling the streets to prevent any protests, a government official said, Reuters reported.

He said low-speed mobile internet, which was restored last month, had also been shut down as a precautionary measure.

Last month, India’s Supreme Court rebuked the government for shutting down the internet and telecommunications in Jammu and Kashmir, which was India’s only Muslim-majority state before it was split into two federally administered territories.

Indian police, meanwhile, have launched legal proceedings against JKLF for calling the strikes.

The JKLF was banned by India last year as part of a massive clampdown in Kashmir after an attack on Feb. 14 in which 40 Indian troops were killed. Its offices were closed and main leaders, including its chairman Yasin Malik, were detained.

On Feb. 9, 2013, Afzal Guru was hanged after the Supreme Court upheld a verdict that he was involved in a 2001 attack on parliament.

Maqbool Bhat was hanged in New Delhi’s Tihar jail on Feb. 11, 1984, following his conviction for the killing of a police official.

The post Indian Kashmir on General Strike appeared first on Iran News Daily.

According To Iran News, Jammu and Kashmir police said Sunday that militants threw a grenade into security forces deployed in the Lal Chowk area of Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmir.

Two security personnel and two civilians have received injuries from shrapnel and have been sent to a hospital, the police added, Sputnik reported.

Tensions in Jammu and Kashmir escalated in August of last year after New Delhi decided to abrogate Article 370, granting special status to the state and divided it into two federally-administered territories.

Fearing violent protests and provocation by local politicians to agitate against the decision on special status, the Narendra Modi government imposed certain restrictions while suspending the internet along with social media in the Kashmir Valley.

Most of Kashmir’s key politicians were taken into custody or put under house arrest to prevent political protests.

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Citing the increasing intensity and frequency of Kashmir ceasefire violations by India along the LoC (de-factor border between India and Pakistan), Imran Khan said that the Indian leadership could attempt a possible “false flag operation” – a possible covert cross-border operation.

“As Indian Occupation forces continue to target & kill civilians across the LOC with increasing intensity & frequency, there is an urgent need for UN SC to insist India allow UNMOGIP return to IOJK-side of LOC. We fear an Indian false flag operation,” said Khan in a tweet on Sunday, Sputnik reported.

He added that there is an urgent need for the UNSC to pressure India to allow the United Nations Military Observer Group for India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to monitor ceasefire violations.

Khan also warned India that it won’t remain a mere observer to the increasing intensity and frequency of ceasefire violations.

“I want to make clear to India and the international community that if India continues its military attacks killing civilians across LOC, Pakistan will find it increasingly difficult to remain an inactive observer along the LOC”, he said.

The two nations have accused each other of violating a 2003 ceasefire agreement over 3,000 times to date.

Tensions between the two nuclear-armed nations escalated after New Delhi took the decision to revoke Article 370 of the Indian Constitution in August 2018, which had ensured the special status of Jammu and Kashmir for decades.

Ever since the state was stripped of its special status, Pakistan has been on a diplomatic offensive on Kashmir, alleging human rights violations in the region.

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According To Iran News, Dozens of people have been killed by avalanches and landslides that have swept through the Pakistan-controlled portion of Kashmir, officials said.

Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority put the death toll at 76 on Wednesday, though that number is expected to increase.

Hundreds of people in remote villages remain stranded in the snow as rescuers rush to save them.

Nearly 200 homes and other structures have been damaged by the avalanches across the mountainous region, officials said, ABC News reported.

Heavy rain and snow has pummeled the disputed region in recent days, triggering the deadly avalanches as well as landslides. The weather has hampered rescue efforts.

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‌TEHRAN (Iran News) – Troops from India and Pakistan have exchanged heavy fire and border shootings along the restive Line of Control (LoC) that divides Kashmir between the two countries, with a total of six soldiers reportedly killed from both sides.

The Pakistani armed forces said two of their soldiers were killed on the border and one wounded when Indian forces started unprovoked shootings in Dewa Sector on the volatile border in Kashmir early on Thursday.

Accusing India of ceasefire violations, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) — the media wing of the Pakistani armed forces — said the soldiers had been killed while responding to cross-border fire from the “enemy” and that the forces had damaged an Indian post, killing three Indian soldiers.

Major General Asif Ghafoor, the director-general of ISPR, confirmed the report in a tweet and identified the two Pakistani soldiers killed in the incident.

​The Indian army said on Wednesday that one Indian soldier and a civilian had been killed as Pakistan violated a ceasefire agreement and opened fire in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.

The Indian army added that Pakistan had resorted to heavy firing from small arms and “also fired mortars and used artillery fire.”

Kashmir has been split between India and Pakistan since their partition in 1947. Both countries claim all of Kashmir and have fought three wars over the territory.

The two nuclear-armed neighbors have accused each other of violating the 2003 ceasefire agreement over 3,000 times to date this year.

Tensions escalated between the two nuclear-armed countries after February 14, when 40 Indian security personnel were killed in a bombing attack in Kashmir.

A Pakistan-based terror group claimed responsibility for the attack.

India recently scrapped the semi-autonomy of its part of Kashmir, sparking a new wave of tensions over the region.

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According To Iran News, India engaged in a diplomatic war of words with China over Kashmir on Thursday as it formally revoked the disputed state’s constitutional autonomy and split it into two federal territories in a bid to integrate it fully into India.

Shops and offices were shut in Muslim-majority Kashmir and the streets largely deserted in its main city Srinagar as new administrators were sworn into office in the biggest restructuring of the 173 year-old former princely kingdom of Jammu and Kashmir.

Pakistan, which claims the whole of Kashmir, has condemned the move and protesters took to the streets on its part of the territory.

Its ally China, which is locked in a separate decades-old dispute with India over the part of Kashmir called Ladakh, also slammed India for unilaterally changing its status.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Kashmir was a dispute left from history that should be peacefully resolved.

“The Indian government officially announced the establishment of so called Jammu Kashmir territory and Ladakh Union territory which included some of China’s territory into its administrative jurisdiction,” Geng said at a news briefing.

“China deplores and firmly opposed that. India unilaterally changes its domestic law and administrative divisions, challenging China’s sovereignty and interests. This is awful and void, and this is not effective in any way and will not change the fact that the area is under China’s actual control.”

India and China fought a war in 1962 and since then have been unable to resolve their border dispute.

India’s foreign ministry spokesman rejected China’s comments and said Kashmir was an integral part of the country and that any reorganization of the state was an internal affair.

“We do not expect other countries, including China, to comment on the matters which are internal to India, just as India refrains from commenting on internal issues of other countries,” Raveesh Kumar told a news conference, Reuters reported.

Kumar said China was in illegal occupation of parts of Kashmir including Ladakh and had also illegally acquired some territories from Pakistan.

The diplomatic rift came just days after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held an informal summit in southern India vowing to improve political and economic ties.

SPECIAL RIGHTS

Modi has said the special privileges Kashmir enjoyed for decades, such as property rights and government jobs only for locals, had hindered its development and fueled separatism.

Just after midnight on Wednesday, the federal government’s orders went into effect, dividing up the old state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories — one Jammu and Kashmir, and the other the Buddhist-dominated enclave of Ladakh.

Both will be directly ruled by Delhi, and new lieutenant governors were sworn in at a high-security governor’s premises later on Thursday.

“The unfulfilled dream of integrating Jammu and Kashmir has been accomplished,” said Home Minister Amit Shah, who is leading the political strategy to deal with Kashmir.

India is hoping that by opening up property rights in Kashmir to people from outside the region it can reignite economic growth, create jobs and turn the focus away from a militant uprising in which more than 40,000 people have died.

It blames Pakistan for keeping the revolt alive, allegations its nuclear-armed neighbor denies. Pakistan and India have fought two wars since independence in 1947 and this year engaged in an aerial clash over the territory.

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According To Iran News, A retired General of the Indian Army who commanded the country’s army corps in the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir said the Muslims’ issue in Kashmir has never been a religious problem, but a matter of political difference.

Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain, is a retired General of the Indian Army. His last assignment in service was as the Military Secretary of the Indian Army.

During an exclusive interview with Tasnim News at the Agency’s central office in Tehran, Ata Hasnain who is now a public speaker, strategic analyst and author, talked about the purpose of his visit to Tehran.

“My good wishes to Tasnim and people of Iran. We are here to pursue more friendship with Iran because our relationship between India and Iran is essentially civilizational, which means it’s historical and we have always enjoyed the best of relationships with Iran,” he continued.

“We feel that we need to pursue this and translate them into many more things in the field of strategic understanding, better economic cooperation and much better people to people contact,” the general added.

He also reiterated the import ace of more cooperations between Iranian and Indian think tanks and hoped for more relationships between the two countries.

Asked about his assessment of bilateral relations between Iran and India and if his presence in Iran could mean more military cooperation between Iran and India in the future, considering that he is an Indian high-ranking military figure, the general said, “India and Iran have enjoyed the best of relationships, as I said historic. And especially after the revolution in 1979, India has made a lot of effort to come closer to Iran and translate our relationship into economic cooperation, people to people contact, a better strategic understanding of world countries. But clearly after the visit of Prime Minister Modi in May, 2016, this relationship is on the path of going up to a much higher level ever in the past.”

He further explained how the US sanctions against Iran has caused troubles for India regarding economic relations with Iran, but also emphasizing that through pursuance of Iran-India relationships the two countries can overcome all obstacles, saying, “Unfortunately there are issues of sanctions which have come up and India has suffered compulsions. Because of these compulsions we have not been able to pursue the relationship in all the spheres in the manner that we would like to pursue it. Although, bilateral relations are very strong, but sanctions do make a difference we hope that through our cooperation and our talks with each other we can overcome all these obstacles through our pursuance of further relationships.”

He also referred to large segment of Shia population in India, which could improve relationships with Iran as it is a majority Muslim Shia country saying, “Particularly I would like to emphasize that we have a very large segment of Shia population in India, almost 25 million people, I would like to communicate to you and the people of Iran that this is almost the second or third largest population of Shias in the world which is common in Iran and they are in one of the safest countries in the world. They feel as if they are part of a Shia country and that is the great news about India, the acceptance of all religions and faiths.”

Mentioning the effects of unilateral US sanctions against Iran, he was asked if he thinks that by imposing sanctions on a country could the US force and dictate its terms on them, Hasnain said that he thinks sanctions on any country is unfair to the people of that country, adding, “you may have differences of opinion politically, strategically, but you cannot punish the people of that country. And that is why ethically in international politics, I do not believe in sanctions or economic sanctions particularly.”

Meanwhile, he referred to the long Iranian history of resistance against oppressors he confidently said he was sure that Iran will not wilt under pressure saying, “Iran has got its own perception and leadership, a confident leadership and they will resist it.”

“I now come to Tehran and find that I do not find the effects of sanctions being told on the streets of Tehran in any particular way,” he added

Hasnain also expressed the hope for restoration of Iran nuclear deal, saying, “I only hope that better sense will prevail and we will see the restoration of the JCPOA returning to its original state and Iran come back to main international mainstream that is something we all pray and hope for.”

Asked about to what extent is India relying on the Iranian port of Chabahar for export the general said, “Chabahar for India is geo-strategically one of the most important ports. The importance is enhanced by the virtue of the fact that for the last almost thirty years India has been looking to access to central Asia, has been looking to access to Afghanistan and also Europe and Russia through the north-south corridor. In the facilitation of all this Chabahar is crucial it is essential and very important agreement was signed between India and Iran. It was a trilateral agreement between India, Iran and Afghanistan in May, 2016 when Prime Minister Niranda Modi visited Tehran.”

“Although, a lot of work has been done in Chabahar, after that unfortunately, the success was manifested with the first consignment of grain going from the Indian port of Kandla, via Chabahar all the way through the highway to Kabul,” he said.

He also added despite Chabahar port is outside the US unilateral sanctions list but the development of this strategic port was not achieved by the Indian side because of financial problems on the ground.

“Thereafter, of course it still remains a very important port for us, but sanctions have caused some problems, also Chabahar is outside the sanctions list, but the way we would like to pursue the relationship, the manner we would like to develop the port of Chabahar, unfortunately, has not been achieved primarily because of financial problems on the ground, the banking facilities, etc. We hope that we will be able to overcome all these, but Chabahar definitely in the Indian scheme of things, still remains economically, strategically one of the most important ports,” he said.

Asked about Kashmir and on the long postponement of holding a referendum in Kashmir by Indian government despite the fact that the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was committed to holding a free referendum in that region, he said, “Firstly I need to tell you that I have been a commander in the Indian Army in Kashmir I was there for almost two and a half years and before that served in Kashmir for almost 20 years.”

“It’s important for me to tell you that the understanding on Kashmir internationally is at a very low level. The issue of plebiscite on Kashmir or a referendum of Kashmir is primarily linked to the UN resolution, I think it’s 47 of 1948. As for the resolution there is to be a referendum in Kashmir after the soldiers and forces who have committed aggression on the State of Kashmir have withdrawn all their troops and India is to maintain a minimum force of soldiers to conduct a referendum, as per legally the way we see it in India, the forces of aggression are that of Pakistan. They chose to fight a war from 1947 to 1948 to change the situation in Kashmir militarily. They have not yet withdrawn despite all the efforts of the United Nations they have not withdrawn from Kashmir for the last 70 years. Instead they have tried to change the whole discourse, the narrative by military means and by attempting to go to war. Today that is the prime reason why we do not think of referendum or plebiscite at all. History has now overtaken the whole United Nations resolution because Pakistan has made efforts to change the narrative in 1948 in 1965 in 1971 in 1989 and 1999 and now I think we have decided that we will dictate the narrative of Kashmir because legally the state of Jammu and Kashmir belongs to India,” he added.

Asked about an end of difficulties of Kashmiri people who couldn’t go for the annual walk of Arbaeen in Iraq’s Karbala because of implementation of over 11 weeks of martial law in this region the general said, “There is no such a thing as martial law in Kashmir. In the month of December, 2018 in Kashmir we had elections to the local bodies. We are now going to have elections next month, to the one step above the local bodies. This is a democratic election while people who are register as voters in the states where elections have been conducted successfully. There is no such a thing as martial law. I wish you can translate this portion first. I need to further state that the situation in Kashmir for the last thirty years has been abnormal. This is primarily because Pakistan has chosen to launch a hybrid proxy war against India, using mujahidin terrorists, initially from the Afghan war and subsequently Pakistani terrorists, using and exhorting local terrorists in Kashmir and use of unbridle violence against everything Indian in Kashmir. So I need to also state that, when you are subjected to terrorist violence anywhere in the world, what the response of the state if it happens in Iraq, Iran or any part of the world? The state will defend itself and will create the conditions to ensure that terrorists do not succeed in their mission. This is exactly what we have done in Kashmir. We have just abrogated a legal provision under which Kashmir was being treated separately. It was almost like an autonomous part of India and because that separatism was being promoted and was helping Pakistan promote that separatism, we have abrogated those constitutional and legal provisions and mainstreamed or integrated the whole of Jammu and Kashmir into India.”

“The reaction of people on the ground will initially be negative, we are and were prepared for that and as you, if say it is done we still have extraordinary situation where total freedom is not their mobile internet is not working and yes you’re right there was a lot of problem for people to even go during Muharram. Even for the Hajj that was a problem for people to go, that was primarily administrative in nature because the mobile communication was not there and even the landline communication was not working and it’s because of that that people could not do the bookings in time. Hopefully next year, we will redouble our efforts and show the maximum people who desire to go to the life’ ambition to go for Hajj instead will be able to go,” he added.

Referring to revocation of article 370 and 35a Indian constitution, the general was asked if this was an effort to make Muslims a minority in Kashmir because in Palestine similar thing happened and Palestinians turned into a minority in some regions.

Pointing out that the situation in Kashmir is purely political the general said, “That’s a very interesting question. I need to first clarify to your viewers that India has 190 million Muslims. Out of that 5 million live in Kashmir. 154 millions live in other parts of India. Indian Muslims are the world’s largest minority. Now by article 370 and 35A the issue in Kashmir, the issue in Kashmir was never a Muslims problem, it is a political problem, which is steeped in history. Because of the problems in 1947 and 1948 the indecision of the ruler of Jammu and Kashmir to make up his mind and finally when he did make up his mind and opted for India, the objections that Pakistan had that Jammu and Kashmir being a Muslim majority state should become a part of Pakistan. That was not necessary there was no such rule which was given out by British at the time when de-partition was taken place. So the problem in Jammu and Kashmir has nothing to do with religion or Muslims, it is entirely political and the problem is made worse by the interference of Pakistan in our internal affairs.”

“Article 370 primarily was a constitutional provision to give a special status to Jammu and Kashmir, it is not Kashmir alone but the whole of Jammu and Kashmir. There are 5 million people in Jammu and Kashmir who are not Muslim. There are Buddhists, Hindus and Siks. The imagination in the world is that there are only Muslim in Kashmir that is not right. There are 5 million other people. Article 370 gave them a certain degree of autonomy to have their own constitution and their own laws and this was separate from the rest of India. Article 35A gave them the power to make their own rules for citizenship, who can become a citizen of Jammu and Kashmir. We feel that now, with history 70 years gone, gone and Pakistan deciding to use the root of violence it was necessary for us to integrate on mainstream the whole of Jammu and Kashmir into India. It was already a part of India,” he noted.

“Articles 370 and 35a were giving an impression to the Kashmiri population and to the Jammu and Kashmir that people were separated from India. We needed to overcome that problem. All that we have done unlike the Palestinian problem we have integrated all the people, the Hindus, the Muslims, the Siks and the Buddhists all of them have been integrated and properly mainstreamed into India and the problem is that the perception in the world they have not studied the history of this region, it’s a complex matter and this needs to be explained to the world.”

Asked the reason for not allowing foreign reporters and independent observers to visit Kashmir and which led to increase of tension in the region and why even the US Senator Chris Van Hollen could not obtain a permit to visit Kashmir, he said, “I met Senator Sen. Chris Van Hollen privately, in a gathering, he had a lot of questions. He did asks these questions also. I want to explain to you that the security situation in Kashmir has not been normal, it has been challenging and abnormal. There has been violence, lots and lots of people killed, lots of soldiers and police men killed.”

“Now when we have undertaken an initiative to bring peace to Kashmir, the initial part of the response from the people and from Pakistan is going to be negative and it may lead to violence. We anticipated it that it could lead to violence. There are many people who support India and there are many people who do not support India. There are many who are sitting on the fence. There will be efforts to try and resist what India has done and therefore this is not the best time to open up an area which under intense security problems this is not be the right for us to open it up at this time. This is a practice which any country in the world will follow when you have an abnormal security situation. I can assure you that there are foreign delegations, there are diplomats, there are NGOs, and there are UN people who had all visited Kashmir at different times. I think it’s a matter of patience, if the situation isn’t normal. You will find Kashmir will be open transparently for business,” he added.

Regarding the lack of presence of independent observers in this region along with the media blackout and the communications blackout, the general was asked if that would give rise to this is speculation that India is cracking down on the people of this region especially considering that the people have no means to express their demands.

“Considering the fact that this is a seventy-year-old problem I think 80 days is a very small period to pass judgment. In these 80 days progressively things have improved. You must remember that we have had similar disturbances in Kashmir in 2016 in 2010, 2009, 2008, four times. And each time we have had loss of life, lots and lots of people who died,” he said.

“this year there has been no loss of life. We have been able to secure Jammu on Kashmir completely because of the presence of the military and the armed police and also very importantly we [had] control over the communications and the media. I need to just highlight to you that in your neighborhood, in Iran’s neighborhood [in your region], you have had problems in Turkey or have problems in Egypt in Tunisia in Syria, where the entire battle by the people was fought on the internet on social media, bringing people to the streets and many people lost their lives. We do not want this negativity to prevail in Jammu and Kashmir even while we are speaking, you’re finding that the landlines have all [been] opened, the mobile phones have [been] opened a postpaid phones have [been] opened. What is not open is prepaid mobile phone communications and what is not open is mobile internet. Mobile internet usually poses the biggest problem because it is used also by Pakistan to instigate influence, carry out information warfare and we do not want to provide the means to Pakistan to control the issues in Jammu and Kashmir. As soon as we find that things have improved in to a great extent we will open the mobile internet, too. To get final peace there has to be a little sacrifice of your basic necessities of life and that is how we look at the security in Jammu and Kashmir.”

Referring to high rise of suicide rates among Indian army personnel serving in Kashmir,  he said about a report by The Times of India which said that 104 personal of the Indian army committed suicide in Kashmir over the past year, “I first need to tell you that India has one of the freest media anyway. Times of India can publish anything they want and no one will question them so as for the authenticity of this figure, 104, I cannot be certain. But let me admit to you that even in my command when I was in Kashmir I had many soldiers who did commit suicide. This is an international phenomena. You’ll find that there is a think of post stress disorder. It is called the post stress traumatic disorder (PSTD). This is a common phenomenon in the militaries everywhere in the world where,” he said.

“The United States has a [time period of] six-month deployment in Afghanistan for its troops. They come for six months and then they go away. The Indian army deploys its troops for two and a half years in Kashmir. There is high stress and there is a high level of challenge, but also let me admit to you that in most cases of suicide which is a common thing in militaries anywhere around the world, the stress is not related to the job the stress is related to a social problem somewhere back at home we have had got problems in India in many parts of India where we have farmer suicides. We have had problems of a failing crops of some people and many of our soldiers come from the villages, so you’ll find that suicides take place because of a variety of reasons and these reasons are not necessarily linked to the issues of their professional conduct in Jammu and Kashmir.”

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The Indian government has decided to call off a proposed visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Turkey’s capital, Ankara, in the wake of President Recip Tayyip Erdogan’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) last month where he criticized India’s move to abrogate Article 370 of the constitution that provided special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

According To Iran News,

Supporting Pakistan, Erdogan had said that it is imperative to solve the problem through “dialogue on the basis of justice, equity, and not through collision.”

Erdogan also said the stability and prosperity of South Asia cannot be separated from the Kashmir issue.

Responding to Turkey’s statements on Kashmir at the UNGA, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said that India does not regret the Turkish president’s statements onwards on a subject which is internal to India. The ministry also called upon Turkey to get a briefing of the facts on the Kashmir issue.

“We call upon the Turkey government to get a proper understanding of the situation on the ground before they make any further statements on this issue. It is a matter which is completely internal to India,” the MEA spokesperson was quoted by indiatoday.com.

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The epicentre of the 5.2-magnitude quake was near the city of Mirpur, 22 kilometers (14 miles) north of the city of Jhelum along the boundary separating the agricultural heartland of Punjab province and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, the US geological agency, USGS, said.

The larger Kashmir region is a disputed and troubled territory with separate Indian and Pakistani regions. Mirpur is in the Pakistani-administered region, which is nominally self-governing.

On one of the district’s two main roads, AFP reporters could see cracks at least four feet (1.2 meters) deep, some filling with water from a nearby canal. Television images showed cars wedged in to some cracks, while a bus and a truck lay by the side of the road.

In the village of Sahankikri, on the outskirts of Mirpur, residents said almost all the 400 houses were damaged.

“We are shelterless now,” said resident Shamraiz Akhtar.

“I will never forget the horrible sound,” another resident, Muhammad Ramzan, told AFP. “It looked like the entire village tossed and turned and spun around.”

“We… We’re sitting having a gossip when suddenly the earthquake shook us all. Fortunately the wall collapsed the other way, burying one of our buffalo,” 23-year-old student Nabeel Hussain said.

Piles of rubble could be seen as darkness fell on the village, with the sound of women wailing in mourning. Others spoke only in whispers, fearful of aftershocks.

“At least 19 people have been killed and more than 300 wounded,” said Sardar Gulfaraz, deputy inspector general of police in Mirpur, in a televised address.

A second Kashmiri official, minister for rehabilitation Ahmed Raza Qadri, put the death toll at 20.

However, the chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) gave a lower toll at a press conference in Islamabad.

“I can confirm 10 deaths and the number of wounded is 100,” said Lieutenant General Mohammad Afzal, chairman of the NDMA, adding that he had received reports of a higher toll.

“Things are under control,” he said, adding that the nearby Mangla Dam, one of Pakistan’s two main water reservoirs, was unaffected by the quake.

The prime minister of Pakistani Kashmir, Raja Farooq Haider Khan, told reporters that infrastructure had been destroyed.

Roads, mobile phone towers, and electricity poles in the area were badly damaged, Naeem Chughtai, a Mirpur resident living near the city’s main hospital, told AFP.

The military deployed “aviation and medical support” teams along with troops to affected areas in Kashmir, according to its spokesman.

Mirpur, a city known for its palatial houses, has strong ties to Britain with the majority of its 450,000 residents carrying both British and Pakistani passports.

Tremors were felt as far as New Delhi. The Press Trust of India reported that panicked people rushed out of their homes and offices in several places, including in Rajasthan, Punjab, and Haryana.

“The earthquake was felt but there are no reports of any damage,” Amir Ali, from the disaster management department in Indian-administered Kashmir, told AFP.

With Indian-held Kashmir’s mobile and internet services mostly cut off after New Delhi stripped the region’s autonomy in early August, people used social media to express fears about not being able to get in touch with their families in the valley.

“Dear @AmitShah (Home Affairs Minister) please restore mobile services in Kashmir I do not know any update since Aug 5 about my family. We are now feeling so anxious about our family in aftermath of Earthquake,” Faizan Peer tweeted.

Pakistan straddles part of the boundary where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet, making the country susceptible to earthquakes.

In October 2015, a 7.5-magnitude quake in Pakistan and Afghanistan killed almost 400 people in rugged terrain that impeded relief efforts.

The country was also hit by a 7.6-magnitude quake on October 8, 2005, that killed more than 73,000 people and left about 3.5 million homeless, mainly in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

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