UN vehicle hit by ‘unidentified object’ on PoK side, won’t confirm firing: Spokesperson

By Arul Louis

United Nations, Dec 19 (SocialNews.XYZ) The UN is only aware that one if the vehicles with its monitoring group in Kashmir was "hit by an unidentified object" and no one was hurt in the incident, according to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres's Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq.

He said on Friday that the incident was under investigation and he did not confirm that the vehicle belonging to the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) was even hit by gunfire on the Pakistan-occupied side of Kashmir.

"At this stage, we're simply aware that a vehicle was hit by an unidentified object," he said when asked about the incident at the daily UN briefing. "No one was harmed in this incident but a vehicle sustained some damage, and we are investigating the incident."

India had earlier denied Pakistan's allegations that the UNMOGIP vehicle was hit by gunfire from Indian forces.

Indian source said that since the movement of UNMOGIP are known in advance there was no possibility of its vehicles coming under fire and that there was no firing by Indian forces in the Chirikot sector.

Pakistani Foreign Office Spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri alleged that the UNMOGIP vehicle that was on its way to Polas village came under fire from Indian border forces in the Chirikot sector along the Line of Control.

The UN outfit began operations in 1949 under the UN Commission for India and Pakistan and when that ended was constituted as UNMOGIP.

India maintains that the UNMOGIP has no relevance under the current conditions, even though it continues to allow it to operate.

It is currently led by Uruguayan Major General Jose Eladio Alcain and has a total of 69 personnel, with the troops drawn from ten countries.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter at @arulouis)

Source: IANS