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Time of India
3 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
She died in my arms: Poonch mourns lives lost in Pak shelling
She died in my arms: Poonch mourns lives lost in Pak shelling POONCH: Shells screamed through the early morning darkness of May 7, tearing through homes and lives in Poonch district, close to the LoC in J&K. At Sukha Kattha, a cluster of small homes on a mountainside, Javid Iqbal's five-year-old daughter Mariyam lay in his lap, her stomach ripped open by shrapnel. 'She died in my arms,' he said on May 30, showing her photo, voice choked. His eight-year-old daughter Iram Naaz was wounded too. In another part of the district, at Jamia Zia-ul-Uloom, a 52-year-old seminary that doubles as a boarding school, Qari Mohammad Iqbal had just started his day. A shell exploded near an under-construction building beside his room, sending metal splinters flying. Four students were wounded. Qari Iqbal, a 46-year-old Quran teacher, was declared dead on arrival at the district hospital. As bombs rained on Poonch for three days, 14 civilians lost their lives, including students, religious teachers, shopkeepers, homemakers, and former soldiers. Over 65 were wounded — many with life-altering scars. Panic spread faster than the blasts. Families fled, streets emptied, The district fell silent under fear. 'Not even in 1965 did we witness this kind of bombardment,' said Zulfikhar Ali, a shopkeeper in Poonch town's main market. 'Everyone who could afford to leave, left.' From May 6 night to May 10, five shells landed outside BJP functionary Pradeep Sharma's home. 'It began at 1.45 am and didn't stop for days,' Sharma said. 'Doctors worked tirelessly, but if we had ventilators, we might have saved six to eight more. We need a trauma hospital here, a govt medical college.' Sharma said 80% of Poonch fled by May 10. He demanded bunkers for every household and government jobs, not just for families of the dead but also for those wounded in the shelling. 'Thirty-five of them have lifelong wounds,' he said. 'They're living with trauma too.' Amid loss and grief, another wound cut deep — one of defamation. Hours after Qari Iqbal's death, Delhi-based news channels flashed his photo on screen, calling him a Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist killed in Operation Sindoor. At Jamia Zia-ul-Uloom on May 30, his brother Farooq Ahmad sat quietly, his face sunken. 'We were already mourning, and then we got WhatsApp forwards. Friends asked, 'Why are news channels calling your brother a terrorist?' He had a beard and a Muslim name. That was enough for them to brand him something he wasn't. Even in death, he was humiliated.' Authorities moved quickly. Poonch police and district officials called the reports 'baseless and misleading'. Legal action was threatened against any outlet or person spreading false claims. Both CM Omar Abdullah and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi visited the Jamia and were briefed about the slander. Nazira Kousar, a mother from Poonch, rushed through falling shells to the hospital on May 7. Her 14-year-old son had been wounded at the seminary. 'Nothing could stop me,' she said. 'He survived, but now hides under a blanket, afraid to go outside. My husband has liver disease. We can't afford treatment.' She came back on May 30, hoping someone would listen. On May 31, Union home minister Amit Shah handed job appointment letters to the next of kin. Dalbir Singh, who lost his brother Ranjit Singh, a grocery shop owner, received one. 'He never married. He was calm and lovable,' Dalbir said. 'I feel the sky has fallen on us. I just want this to end.' At least five members of the local Sikh community died, including former Army officer Amarjeet Singh, homemaker Ruby Kaur, and neighbour Amreek Singh. A gurdwara wall was damaged in the shelling. As Poonch recovers from three days of unrelenting fire, scars remain — carved in stone and memory.
The Print
08-05-2025
- Politics
- The Print
Poonch madrasa teacher died in Pakistan shelling. Now, anger over his misidentification as ‘terrorist'
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) Also Read: Kashmiris defying fear to denounce Pahalgam attack. 'Terrorists can kill us, but won't stay quiet'
