In wake of ceasefire, damaged homes in a Jammu neighbourhood bear witness to human cost of conflict

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10-05-2025

On Saturday morning, Rajinder Kumar, his wife and two sons were cleaning debris in their small house in Jammu city's Rehari Colony.
The tensions between India and Pakistan that had begun to rise since the commencement of Operation Sindoor on Wednesday had weighed heavy on Kumar's mind but he never expected the conflict to come to his own doorstep.
Kumar's slumber was disrupted by a loud bang inside his house at around 5.35, waking up his family. Within a matter of seconds they were blinded by falling shards of their ceiling, concrete dust and smoke.
'We ran outside as fast as we could,' he said.
Residents of the colony say that there was a loud bang but no explosion or fire. It is unclear whether this was a single explosive, or several that failed to detonate, or whether it was the debris of an intercepted aircraft or shells fired from Pakistan.
Next door to Rajinder Kumar, his brother, Jatinder Kumar, was shaken awake too. 'We rushed outside to save our lives,' he said.
His wife had been taken to hospital with injuries, Jatinder Kumar said. A woman named Shweta said her husband also had to be taken to hospital.
Besides the houses of the Kumar brothers that seemed to have borne the brunt of the projectile's impact, at least three other houses across from theirs suffered notable damage. A few other houses had their windowpanes broken with the impact.
As Indian officials on Saturday evening announced a ceasefire with Pakistan, the damage in Rehari Colony stood as testimony to the human cost of the conflict.
Jammu and Kashmir and northern states have been subjected to a barrage of drone attacks by Pakistan in retaliation for Operation Sindoor, which India launched on nine sites across the border after terrorists shot dead 26 people in Pahalgam. Indian officials say between 300-400 Pakistani drones were intercepted.
More than a dozen residents of Jammu and Kashmir's border region have been killed in intense shelling by Pakistan.
By Saturday evening, the authorities had not made a statement about the nature of the projectiles that hit Rehari.
In Rehari, the door to Rajinder Kumar's small single-storeyed house opens up to their tiny living room that is dominated by a sofa and two plastic chairs. A small passage leads to a bedroom in the back. One of Kumar's sons was asleep on the sofa and was lucky to have escaped serious injuries.
For about an hour, residents say local authorities did not respond to the situation. 'We called everyone we could, but nobody came to our help,' said Kumar.
By 8.30 am, the colony was swarming with personnel of the State Disaster Relief Force, the police, the Indian Army and the chief minister's security team. Twenty minutes later, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah arrived.
Since Jammu and Kashmir was downgraded to Union territory status in 2019, much administrative power lies in the hands of the Centre. His visit and the arrangements that it entailed caused some anger among the residents.
'They said nothing to us,' said a neighbour of Kumar, who was helping with the clean up. 'We even asked [the personnel on ground] for help to open a jammed door but they didn't even do that.'
Kumar's brother, Jatinder, also complained that the authorities had not been helpful. He said that his injured wife had to be taken to hospital by the neighbours.
'We had called everyone [in the administration], but nobody came for help,' Jatinder Kumar said. 'They came an hour later.
He too was unimpressed with Omar Abdullah's visit. 'The chief minister came and saw what had happened, but nobody gave us any reassurances,' Jatinder Kumar said.
Amit, another resident in the area whose house had been damaged, said the residents had been anxious ever since Pakistan had begun firing at targets in India. On Saturday, he said, it 'felt as if an earthquake had happened. It was a very loud bang, and everything was moving.'
Shweta, another resident, was also woken up by the impact of debris falling on her house. She said some of the relatives had been injured in the incident. Like others in the neighborhood, she was upset with the government for failing to respond to the people's needs.
'Where will we evacuate to?' she asked. 'Nowhere is safe. ... we spend our whole lives building our properties. You want us to leave and run. It can't happen. This government has not given us as much as it has taken away from us now.'