SRINAGAR: Pakistani troops have forced India to stop construction of a ‘Model Village’ near the Line of Control (LoC) in the frontier district of Kupwara, where a high-level team is rushing today to assess the situation.
Keran, a village surrounded by Pakistani troops from different sides near LoC, was being developed as a Model village under Border Area Development Programme (BADP), a central scheme for which more than Rs 2.10 crore had been sanctioned for undertaking development works on the bank of the Kishenganga river, which flows into Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
However, the LoC in the Kashmir valley remained by and large peaceful, amid continued shelling by Pakistani troops along the LoC and International Border (IB), in Jammu region, where a Border Security Force (BSF) jawan was killed and three others were injured in heavy shelling last night.
Official sources said as the work was on in Keran, a group of armed Pakistani troops appeared near the construction site and warned the contractor to stop work or face consequences on October 21.
They said the money sanctioned under BADP was to be spent on construction of roads, community hall, footpaths, library blocks and children park besides transmission lines and drains in Keran, which remains cut off during winter months due to heavy snowfall.
A group of armed Pakistani troops appeared near the construction site and warned the contractor to stop work or face consequences on October 21.
The community hall, library block and children park were being constructed on the bank of the Kishenganga which flows to Pakistani Kashmir, where the river has been named as Neelam.
“Pakistani troops warned that in case we continued work they will have to take action as per orders from their top officials,” sources said, adding that the contractor stopped work after informing the local police and Army authorities.
The sources said work on Model Village has not been resumed and a high-level team led by a senior engineer of Roads and Buildings department is visiting the area probably today.
Pakistan had also objected to Kishenganga power project and took the matter to Arbitration Court in The Hague in The Netherlands. Pakistan had moved the court last year under the 1960 Indus Water Treaty, which governs the jurisdiction over common rivers and provides for arbitration by the International Court if India and Pakistan are not able to resolve any matter bilaterally.
Pakistan is contending that the power project would lead to diversion of the Kishenganga waters to Bonar Madumati Nallah, another tributary, which falls in Wullar Lake.
However, India rejects Pakistan’s objections on this front.
