Protests in Delhi over Pakistan ceasefire violations

New Delhi: The national capital on Thursday saw protests over the continuing ceasefire violations by Pakistan with demonstrations being held outside the Pakistan High Commission and the residence of its High Commissioner.

Scores of Indian Youth Congress (IYC) activists held a stir outside Pakistan High Commission during which they slammed the ceasefire violations along the international border by troops of the neighbouring country.

The protesters condemned the cross-border firing which has led to military and civilian casualties in the frontier areas of Jammu and Kashmir and sparked a mass exodus in the villages there.

Speaking to reporters, Harsh Vardhan Shyam, the IYC national general secretary, hit out at the Centre over the issue and charged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was doing nothing to mitigate the situation.

"It is alarming that the man who made this (dealing with Pakistan and China) his primary election agenda is completely silent when India is facing the heaviest cross-border shelling since 1971," he said.

The protesters, who raised anti-Pakistan slogans and held up placards, were detained by police and taken to Chanakyapuri police station. They were later released.

In another protest over the situation at the border in J-K, a group of activists from a saffron organisation held a demonstration this afternoon outside Pakistan House, the official residence of the Pakistan High Commissioner at Tilak Marg here.

These protesters, around 20 to 25 in number, too, were detained by police when they tried to burn a Pakistan flag and a poster of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. They were taken to the Tilak Marg police station and released later in the evening, police said.

"We want the Modi government to send back the Pakistan High Commissioner and stop the Lahore bus service and Samjhauta Express until this cross-border shelling ceases," said Vishnu Gupta, one of the protesters at Tilak Marg.

Nearly 30,000 people have been displaced in J&K in one of the worst violations of the 2003 ceasefire by Pakistan which has left eight people dead and 80 others, including nine security men, injured since October 1.