‘We are very afraid': Hours before ceasefire, Punjab village hit by drone filled with dread
On the evening of May 9, residents of Khai Pheme Ki village in Punjab's Ferozepur district were far from anxious about the India-Pakistan conflict.
Despite the blackout and the official orders to stay indoors, Jasgeer Singh, 30, had stepped out to meet his neighbours and banter about the crisis,
Around 9 pm, all that changed with a sudden flash and a deafening explosion.
'Everyone panicked and ran home,' said Singh.
Moments later, more than a dozen red lights appeared in the night sky, said Tek Chand Uppal, a resident of the village. 'They kept blinking and they made no noise,' he said. 'It seemed like they could fall on you any time.'
These were Pakistani drones and one of them had crashed into the home of Singh's neighbour, Jaswant Singh.
Jaswant Singh and his parents, Lakhwinder and Sukhwinder, were having dinner on the verandah when it happened.
The son, 27, ended up with minor injuries to his leg. But his parents suffered severe burns and were rushed to a hospital in Ferozepur town.
One of their cows was also burnt badly.
'The war has already started for me and my family, though we did not want a war,' Jaswant Singh told Scroll at the hospital.
Hours later, on Saturday evening, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri announced that India and Pakistan had agreed to stop all firing on land, air and sea.
The announcement came minutes after United States President Donald Trump said on social media that India and Pakistan have agreed to a 'full and immediate ceasefire ', claiming that the talks were mediated by his administration.
Since May 8, India and Pakistan have alleged that the other side has conducted drone strikes in their territory. That day, Pakistan's military said it shot down about 25 Indian drones over major cities, including Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Attock.
India said that this was a response to Pakistani drones hitting 15 Indian locations in Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat.
Hours after Khai Pheme Ki was attacked, the Indian army reported 26 drone sightings across Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Rajasthan.
With the international border just 10 km from the village, and no signs of de-escalation, the attack had left behind fear, confusion and dread in this village of 4,000 residents.
Ferozepur was last attacked by Pakistan during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, when its forces launched an assault from the Hussainiwala border, 12 km from Khai Pheme Ki.
'My seven-year-old son was so afraid that he developed a fever,' said Jasgeer. 'We took him and our 6-year-old daughter to a nearby dargah and stayed there till midnight.'
The following day, the children were so afraid that they had refused to step out of the house. 'Usually, they are always playing outside,' said Singh.
The drone attacks were targeted at the army cantonment in Ferozepur town and went on till five in the morning, two security officials from the cantonment told Scroll. While most of them were intercepted, the officials were unsure how one of them landed in Khai Pheme Ki.
At the hospital, Jaswant was still at a loss of words to describe the events of the previous night. 'It happened out of nowhere,' he said, more than once. 'I have never seen anything like this.'
The consequences were grave for this family of farmers, especially his mother, Sukhwinder Kaur.
Saurabh Bhagi, the chief executive officer of Anil Bhagi Hospital in Ferozepur, told Scroll that Kaur had suffered 80% burns. 'Her condition has improved in the last 12 hours,' he said. But given the burns, he was wary about her prognosis.
Her husband, Lakhwinder, had suffered 60% burns but he was out of danger, according to Baghi.
At noon on May 10, the two were shifted to the Dayanand Medical College in Ludhiana.
The fear of a full-scale war was a new experience for many in the village.
'Our parents told us stories of seeing jets flying over them' in 1971, said Harmeet Singh, a farmer in the village. 'And we see these red lights in the sky.'
Prince, 18, is one of those rattled by the drone attack. He travels 5 km every day from his village to work at an automobile agency in Khai Pheme Ki.
Everyone in his village had seen the Pakistani drones above the nearby Border Security Force camp late on Friday night, before they were taken down by surface-to-air missiles.
Naturally, his parents asked him to skip work on May 10. 'But my boss asked me to come,' said Prince. 'When I got here, he asked me to go back. Everybody is tense today.'
Prince said that most people had one question on their minds: will there be a war? 'Humein jung nahi chahiye,' he said. 'Humein bahut dar lagta hai. We do not want a war, we are very afraid.'
Harmeet, too, added that the villagers wanted peace over war. 'We cannot live with the fear of attacks every night,' he said. 'But if there is a war, just finish everything for once and for all.'
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