Poonch madrasa teacher died in Pakistan shelling. Now, anger over his misidentification as ‘terrorist'

The Print

08-05-2025

At least 12 civilians have been killed and over 50 injured in the heavy shelling that began after India launched Operation Sindoor to take out terror launchpads in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
The 56-year-old, a resident of Poonch town, was lucky. His brother Amrik Singh, 54, was killed in the Pakistani shelling on Wednesday morning. The Singhs are among the civilians who came under intense shelling in Poonch, which is located near the Line of Control (LoC).
Poonch: 'A shrapnel hit my left hand, and I saw one of my fingers hanging with just skin keeping it attached to my hand. I zoned out while trying to hold my drooping finger and flesh with my right hand,' an injured Harjeet Singh recalled.
The Pakistan forces have been using heavy artillery and mortars to target villages located along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir. The Indian Army is responding to the shelling in equal measure. Poonch has previously borne the brunt of such attacks in the past as well, be it in the 1965 or 1971 India-Pakistan wars.
'We didn't sleep the whole night, as there was a lot of shelling going on the Line of Control. At 6 a.m., we went to the gurdwara, and we got home by 6:45 a.m. The moment we got home, we heard blasts in the bazaar,' Harjeet said.
The artillery shell which killed Amrik and injured Harjeet, also claimed the life of 48-year-old Ranjit Singh, their neighbour. Ranjit died on the spot. The houses of the two families are separated by a narrow footwalk.
The shell hit a corner of the top right of a hardware store and then exploded, tearing the cement slab of the shop. The shrapnels left holes in the shutters of nearby shops and even pierced the thick walls.
'I told all the family members to sit in a room on the first floor, but my brother Amrik– who used to live on the first floor of the building–decided to use the store room of our grocery shop,' the injured Harjeet told ThePrint.
One of the shrapnels pierced through the shutter and hit Amrik's right chest, shoulder and abdomen. Harjeet, while scanning for safe shelter for his family, was hit on the left hand by another such shrapnel.
'Three-four shells fell in this periphery, but the one that hit here was the deadliest,' Amrik and Harjit's cousin, 60-year-old Manmohan Singh, said
That enemy projectiles make no distinction between civilian and military areas was made amply clear when shells hit a local gurdwara, a madrasa and fell adjacent to a Christian school. Two children were killed when the shell landed near the school, local residents told ThePrint.
One such shell hit the roof of a construction building and the splinters made their way to a room right opposite and killed 46-year-old teacher Qari Mohammad Iqbal at the Jamia Zia-ul-Uloom seminary.
'Due to the shelling, we had kept our students in the basement where we usually share the meals so that they are safe, but Iqbal was sitting in the class when the shell hit us,' said Abdul Majeed, who cooks in the seminary.
The shrapnel hit Iqbal's chin and slit his throat. 'It hit his 'shah rag' (jugular vein),' said Syed Ahmed Habib, head of Zia Ul Uloom seminary.
Soon after his death, some television news channels ran news stories of Iqbal being a 'terrorist', to which his family came out negating the charge and demanding action against the media houses
'This is a 'ghatiya harkat' (foul act) by these media houses. He was well-known in the local society for being kind; even the police knew him. There isn't a single FIR against him, and we are looking for ways to take legal action,' said Ahmed Habib, head of Zia Ul Uloom seminary.
Most of the businesses in Poonch town remain shut as people have locked their properties and left for their safety. ThePrint came across several instances in which people were carrying their injured on tractors to the district hospital.
Mohammad Hafeez, another local resident, vented his frustration as he showed the extensive damages to his house after a shell landed nearby and set ablaze expensive items.
'We suffered in '65, '71, and are facing it even now. The government should end it for once and all. How long are we supposed to face this?' the middle-aged man said.
A similar sentiment was palpable when ex-servicemen Manohar Singh spoke about the situation at the ground. 'If there was a single warning given to us like they did during the 1965 and 1971 wars, many would have been alive today. But they (administration) choose the opposite,' the 60-year-old military veteran fumed.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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