Jammu: Kanchan Pawar fights hard to hold back tears. Four of her milch buffaloes are dead, and a fifth is barely alive. Behind her, a JCB digs a pit for the burial of the animals killed when Pakistan breached the 10 May, 5 pm ceasefire, with its artillery shelling destroying Pawar’s cattle shed.
“Our only sources of livelihood are dead now. We do not have jobs … we would earn money from our cattle,” says Pawar, a resident of Kot Maira village, Akhnoor tehsil, Jammu.
Barely two kilometres away, two shells dropped on a house, blowing it to bits. The house owned by 59-year-old Bari Ram was among the structures directly hit by shelling on Kot Maira after the ceasefire announcement.
Kot Maira is at a three km aerial distance from the Line of Control.
People residing in the border villages are invariably the first as well as the last to experience the impact of any cross-border tensions—shelling or unprovoked firing. The shelling has killed nearly 20 civilians and injured many others in the villages along the border in Jammu & Kashmir, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Punjab, among others.
“The shelling of my home was after the ceasefire,” Bari Ram tells ThePrint. “We heard the tensions were over. But two shells fell on my house. We were visiting our neighbour.”
Bari Ram spends most of his time trying to salvage any parts of his house he can find intact. The crater, where his house stood, is nearly five-six feet deep and just as wide.
People felt the impact within a 50-foot radius.
Earlier, when Pakistan targeted civilian areas after the 7 May Operation Sindoor, Kot Maira resident and Bari Ram’s neighbour Roshan Lal was sleeping in his courtyard. A blast shook the ground and woke him up. He feels lucky to have survived the impact. His bathroom wall now has two gaping holes. Cracks have developed on nearly all of his house walls.
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‘Saved by a whisker’
The residents of Nayi Basti village, Anantnag tehsil, Jammu, took time before meeting with journalists. While media attention focuses on directly affected properties, residents, whose houses sustain damage, usually assist journalists and guide them to the damage, in the hopes that their stories will bring some compensation.
Bachchan Lal and the other Nayi Basti locals ran to the bunkers in the village when the shells started dropping, with one of them whizzing past their hamlet.
Roughly an hour later, when Bachchan Lal returned home, it lay destroyed.
“I was here 10 minutes before the shells dropped on my house. My family and I sleep here. We would all be dead if we stayed here for a few more minutes,” Lal says.
Located only 100 metres from the International Border, the village has three bunkers, built at least 15 years ago, and locals know how to react to shelling swiftly.
With a damp smell, the bunkers have little ventilation or light. Some plastic crates stand in the corner, but most people sit on the hard concrete floors.
“We just sit around and wait for the shelling to subside. Then, we step out and go on about our business,” Lal tells ThePrint.
After 7 May, people from several border villages in Jammu and other places had been evacuated from their houses and shifted to campsites. Following the ceasefire announcement, they returned home, but the shelling followed them.
Mangal Das from the neighbouring Gharkal village has continued to stay at the Mishriwala campsite in Jammu since 8 May in the morning.
“We were brought here (the camp) from Gharkal and other villages. Firing or drone attacks have continued over Jammu. Where do we feel safe?” the 70-year-old Das asks ThePrint.
The cross-border shelling has also damaged Shwetha Gupta’s home in the Rehari colony, a densely populated locality inside Jammu city. The shells shattered the windows of her home and family car.
‘Finish this once and for all’
Villagers, sheltering at campsites before the ceasefire announcement, are slowly returning home by the dozens, sitting at the back of small goods vehicles. Several are unsure if the shelling has stopped or only paused before restarting.
Ceasefire violations have continued long after the 10 May, 5 pm deadline. The destroyed or damaged homes in Kot Maira, Pahari Wala, and Pragwal were all hit after the ceasefire announcement.
The sound of explosions over Jammu and the anti-drone activity over Samba and a few other places, even on Monday night, has added to the uncertainty among people living in these parts about whether this would be their “new normal”.
Hansraj, a septuagenarian and Panchayat board member of Kot Maira, says he has seen all the wars since 1965. “Every time, just after we return to normalcy and our livelihoods, this (shelling) happens again. Pakistan has never allowed us to settle down.”
Many others who suffered losses mirror his views—they are tired of living in fear. “The shelling has already destroyed our homes, and the villagers are living in camps, schools or the homes of their relatives,” Hansraj says. “I want to tell Modi that he should finish this once and for all with Pakistan. If we leave this unfinished, it (shelling) will happen again. At least, the next generation should live peacefully.”
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)