A father's arms, a daughter's last breath: What Pakistan's shelling left behind in Poonch
Grief grips the border district of Poonch as families mourn the loss of 14 civilians killed during intense shelling from across the Line of Control (LoC) in early May. Over 65 others were wounded in the relentless assault, which reduced homes to rubble, displaced hundreds, and shattered the fragile calm in this conflict-weary region.
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The shelling began in the early hours of May 7, raining down destruction on villages like Sukha Kattha, where Javid Iqbal held his five-year-old daughter Mariyam as shrapnel tore through her small body. 'She died in my arms,' he said, struggling to speak as he held up her photograph. His older daughter, eight-year-old Iram Naaz, was also injured in the blast.Across the district at Jamia Zia-ul-Uloom, a 52-year-old religious seminary that also houses boarding students, a shell exploded near an under-construction building beside the room of Quran teacher Qari Mohammad Iqbal. The 46-year-old cleric was killed instantly, and four students sustained serious injuries, reported TOI.The barrage, which lasted for three days, claimed the lives of students, teachers, shopkeepers, homemakers, and even ex-servicemen. With the blasts came a wave of panic. Families fled en masse, streets fell eerily silent, and entire communities were displaced overnight.'Not even in 1965 did we witness this kind of bombardment,' said Zulfikhar Ali, a shopkeeper in Poonch's central market. 'Everyone who could afford to leave, left.'From the night of May 6 to May 10, five shells landed near the residence of BJP functionary Pradeep Sharma. 'It began at 1:45 am and didn't stop for days,' Sharma recounted. 'Doctors did their best, but without ventilators, six to eight lives were lost that could've been saved. We need a trauma center, a medical college here.'By May 10, Sharma estimated 80% of the district had fled. He called for immediate government action — bunkers for each household and permanent jobs not just for the deceased's kin, but also for the wounded. 'Thirty-five of them are carrying wounds they'll never recover from. They're traumatized, forgotten.'Yet even as Poonch grappled with its wounds, another blow came, this one not from across the border, but from national newsrooms. Hours after Qari Iqbal's death, several TV channels falsely identified him as a Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist killed in " Operation Sindoor ."His brother Farooq Ahmad, sitting quietly at the seminary on May 30, described the pain of the slander. 'We were already mourning, and then came the WhatsApp forwards,' he said. 'People asked, 'Why are news channels calling your brother a terrorist?' He had a beard and a Muslim name, that's all it took. Even in death, he was humiliated.'Poonch police swiftly condemned the reports as 'baseless and misleading,' and warned of legal action against those spreading disinformation. Both J&K's former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi visited the seminary to offer condolences and discuss the media defamation.For many, survival has come at a heavy price. Nazira Kousar, a mother from Poonch, risked her life running through shellfire on May 7 to reach the hospital where her 14-year-old son, injured at the seminary, had been taken. 'Nothing could stop me,' she said. 'He survived, but now hides under a blanket, terrified. My husband is ill. We can't afford his treatment.'She returned on May 30, seeking help, hoping someone in power might listen this time.On May 31, Union Home Minister Amit Shah distributed job appointment letters to the next of kin of those killed. Among the recipients was Dalbir Singh, whose brother Ranjit Singh, a grocery shop owner, was one of the victims. 'He never married. He was calm and lovable,' Dalbir said, his voice breaking. 'It feels like the sky has fallen. I just want this to end.'At least five members of the local Sikh community were also among the dead, including former Army officer Amarjeet Singh, homemaker Ruby Kaur, and their neighbor Amreek Singh. A gurdwara wall bears the impact of the shelling, a permanent reminder of the violence that swept through.As the smoke clears and silence returns to the hills of Poonch, what remains are stories of heartbreak, resilience, and injustice, and a community struggling to recover not just from war, but from wounds both physical and unseen.
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