Indian airstrikes on Pakistani controlled Kashmir destroyed a mosque with an 80-year-old man sleeping inside, journalist Zia Ur Rehman has claimed on the latest episode of the Mail’s ‘Apocalypse Now?’ podcast.
Tensions between India and Pakistan have reached boiling point after India unleashed airstrikes against parts of Islamabad controlled Kashmir on Wednesday.
India claimed the airstrikes were limited to ‘terrorist infrastructure’ in the disputed region and retaliatory in nature, a response to 25 Indian tourists being gunned down in Phalagam, in India-administered Kashmir.
Pakistan denies any involvement in the 22 April attack, but India says it believes the four perpetrators had ties to Islamabad.
Pakistani journalist Zia Ur Rehman, having visited a part of Kashmir bombed by India, told special correspondent David Patrikarakos that he disputes the Indian government’s claim that their missile strikes were limited only to terrorist activities.
‘I visited a site in Pakistani administered Kashmir, which was one of six sites hit by Indian air strikes on Wednesday’, Mr Rehman recalled.
‘It was a mosque: there was debris everywhere, rooms and doors were broken. A war-like scene. Residents said they were hit four or five times in the middle of the night.
‘The attack killed three people who were sleeping in the mosque. One was a prayer leader. He was 80 years old.
‘Neighbouring houses were also damaged. The strikes were basically in the middle of a densely populated neighbourhood of Kashmir.
‘India claims they targeted militant training headquarters, but they hit a densely populated neighbourhood. You cannot train militants 200 yards from a mosque.’
Mr Rehman said he believed India was acting on outdated information, striking targets that haven’t been connected terrorist activities in over 20 years.
‘We noticed a pattern in all six of these attacks’, Mr Rehman said.
‘They attacked mosques that had been linked to a militant group in Kashmir from the 1990s to 2005. But after 2005, an earthquake hit Kashmir. It devastated the area – afterwards, this neighbourhood emerged as a popular civilian area.
‘Since then, the mosque has been a community mosque, where hundreds of people pray five times a day.’
‘India is keeping all its old files. Their intelligence is outdated, and they don’t seem to know about current terrorist phenomena: which hideouts are being used or not.’
Since the airstrikes, India has accused Pakistan of conducting drone strikes against a town in Indian administered Kashmir.
Mr Rehman said the mood amongst Pakistanis was one that favoured de-escalation, with civilians wanting the international community to intervene to stop a quickly emerging cycle of retaliatory destruction.
‘The people want peace’, Mr Rehman said.
‘But there is also a sentiment that that if India attacks first, Pakistan should respond because it becomes an issue of defending your own land.
‘Most people say there should be peace talks, and that the international community should intervene to stop this from escalating anymore.’
Search for ‘Apocalypse Now?’ with special guest Zia Ur Rehman wherever you get your podcasts.