For Residents of Jammu and Kashmir Near LoC, Homes Have Become Nightmare

The Wire

13-05-2025

Srinagar/Uri: Sixty-five-year old Syeeda Begum lost her voice on the frightful night of May 9 when an artillery shell exploded on her family home in Gingle village along the Line of Control in north Kashmir's Baramulla district.
At around 9:30 PM, Begum's family of two sons, their wives and nine children were scurrying to safety as the calm in their border village was intermittently shattered by loud explosions that seemed to be coming closer as the evening progressed into night.
As her son Mehmood Ali rushed out of the house with his terrified seven-year-old daughter in arms who had suffered a panic attack, an artillery shell tore through the roof, setting the house on fire.
'She is in shock,' says Ali, taking temporary shelter at a mosque that opened for the residents of the border town of Uri and its adjoining villages who have been displaced by Pakistan's artillery shelling along the LoC and international border in the aftermath of 'Operation Sindoor'.
A family sitting outside a temporary shelter after fleeing their home in Uri which was targeted by artillery shelling. Photo: Ubaid Mukhtar.
Ali, who works as an accountant with a local contractor, said that the loud blast and the visuals of their burning house also left his daughter traumatised.
'Whenever we mention our house, she shakes with fear and cries incessantly. She doesn't want to return home,' Ali says, his tone heavy with grief.
Homes have become a nightmare for thousands of border residents in J&K who were displaced in the aftermath of the military operation against suspected terrorist bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
At least 19 border residents lost their lives while dozens were injured in the four-day aerial skirmishes between the armies of India and Pakistan which brought the South Asian region on the brink of a nuclear catastrophe.
The clashes prompted the US intervention that has led to the cessation of hostilities for the time being.
A man pointing to a damaged wall of his residence in Uri which was hit by splinters of artillery shells. Photo: Ubaid Mukhtar
Poonch was the worst hit where 14 civilians, including four children, were killed in shelling along the Line of Control. Among the dead in Poonch are 13-year-old twins Zain Ali and his sister Urwa Fatima, known to their families as Ayan and Zoya respectively, and five members of the Sikh community.
Three civilians, including an additional district development commissioner of J&K government, and a two-year-old girl, were killed in Rajouri while two civilians died in north Kashmir's frontier town of Uri and RS Pura along the IB in Jammu.
Three days after India and Pakistan entered into a US-brokered ceasefire agreement, the Jammu and Kashmir administration is scrambling to assess the physical losses, while the fears of unexploded ordinance have kept many border residents from rebuilding their lives.
Sources said that security forces are mopping up the affected areas before allowing the displaced residents to return to their homes.
Divisional commissioner of Kashmir valley, V.K. Bidhuri and his counterpart in Jammu, Ramesh Kumar could not be reached for comments about the official assessment of the physical losses in the Union territory due to Pakistan's artillery firing and suspected drone attacks.
The Wire spoke with dozens of residents of Uri and Poonch districts, some of whom continue to live in schools, mosques and other public places that have been turned into temporary shelters for the displaced families. Most affected residents complained about the shortage or complete absence of underground bunkers which they believed could have minimised the toll of the deceased and the injured.
Residents of Uri village showing the remains of the shells that hit their residential homes after Pakistan resorted to artillery shelling in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor. Photo: Ubaid Mukhtar
Waqar Aajiz, a resident of Poonch's Dingla, who shifted to a government school which was turned into a temporary shelter for the displaced in the aftermath of the artillery shelling of the border district, says that he returned to his home on Tuesday.
'Many residents have come back, even though the fear of violence again breaking out looms large. There were apprehensions that the DGMO talks would fail but they have been put to rest and even those who had fled to Jammu and other districts are returning,' Aajiz says.
In a televised address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday that the armed forces had 'destroyed a large part of the terrorist infrastructure, eliminated many terrorists, and turned their terror nests in Pakistan into ruins'.
According to reports, the directors general of military operation (DGMO) of India and Pakistan discussed measures to uphold the ceasefire during a 30-minute conversation at 5 pm on Monday.
Aajiz adds: 'What have we achieved? Several lives were lost. Many houses have turned into ruins. Is the widespread death and destruction in Poonch our answer to Pakistan? Who will guarantee that Pakistan will not shell our home again?'
90-year-old Said Hussain said that it was for the first time since the 1947-48 Indo-Pak war when the historic city of Poonch was divided between India and Pakistan that the border district witnessed artillery shelling of civilian areas during the four-day long skirmishes in the aftermath of 'Operation Sindoor'.
'We were not affected even during the wars of 1965, 1971 and 1999 and at the peak of militancy on the scale that we have seen since May 7. India and Pakistan fought three wars, but the problem of terrorism remains. What has been gained except loss of lives and property?' asks Hussain, a resident of Nangali village in Poonch, over the phone.
Uri's main market, once bustling with shoppers, looked deserted on Monday as residents largely stayed indoors, unsure of what the future holds.
Ali, whose house in Gingle was partially damaged in the shelling, says that his ailing mother was suffering from high blood pressure. 'Her eyes swell like balloons. I want to take her to a doctor but we are living in a mosque and the situation doesn't look right,' he says.
Misra Begum, Ali's wife and a homemaker, says she was used to the sound of shells landing away from their village but 'I never thought we would be targeted one day. I cannot sleep. The horrors of that night are still giving me sleepless nights. Even the children cannot sleep.'
Syeeda Begum (right) and her daughter-in-law at their partially damaged home in Gingle village of Uri. Photo: Ubaid Mukhtar.
The ruling National Conference leader and member of the J&K Legislative Assembly from Uri, Sajjad Shafi, who visited the affected villages on Monday, said the border residents of Jammu and Kashmir were the main victims of the hostilities between India and Pakistan.
'Half the population of Uri has been affected. Everyone in Delhi and Islamabad is sitting at ease while we, the border people, have become homeless. Our forefathers suffered and now we and our children are suffering. We want a permanent end to this conflict as soon as possible. We don't want a ceasefire. We want a permanent solution,' he said.
Muneer Hussain, a resident of Kamalkote in Uri, says that the government should build underground bunkers in all the residential areas which were affected by artillery shelling.
'We have heard of government proposals to build underground bunkers, but these promises have remained on paper. We survived this time by sheer luck, but who knows what will happen if it starts again,' he adds.