New Delhi: Huddled inside a packed bunker in Poonch’s Islamabad village, Mumtaz Rathore felt claustrophobic as he and nearly 70 others sat with bated breath while Pakistani artillery and mortar shells rained throughout Thursday night. “Ten to twelve shells were being fired from (across) the border every minute,” the 32-year-old recalled.
Located just two km from the Line of Control (LoC), Islamabad village has only two bunkers for the entire local populace. The situation is no different in roughly 100-150 border villages, where, according to non-government and local officials, about 40 percent of the families are still left behind.
What makes rescue efforts tough, apart from shelling and stretched resources, is power disruptions and mobile phones dying. Reaching out to the people in the severely affected areas has now become difficult.
Visuals from villages across Poonch, Kupwara and Uri once again emerged Thursday night even as Jammu city came under attack. For those who are left behind in these areas, the situation remains uncertain. “We thought that this was the end,” said Rathore, who doesn’t have the resources to move out to safer places.
“Some people ran to Poonch city, but the violence reached there and people died. Then some moved to Jammu, shelling started there as well. There’s no safe place left in Jammu and Kashmir,” he told ThePrint over the phone.
A measure of the volatile situation can be gauged from the fact that about 80 percent of Poonch city, according to local non-profit Sarimastaan Tribal Gurjar Welfare Foundation, is now vacant.
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‘Better to just die at once’
Waqar, a resident of Dingla village who is currently put up at a shelter in Poonch city, said that he saw at least four places hit by shelling Thursday night.
When the Jammu city was targeted by Pakistan drones and other munitions, Waqar said that the villagers thought that Poonch might be spared at least for one night. Within minutes, however, the town witnessed shelling that shook them to the core. “Now, we are sure that this does not end here. They kill us everyday; it’s better to just die at once. They should declare a full-fledged war,” he said.
In Kupwara, similar scenes unfolded throughout the night. A local MLA from Kupwara, Fayaz Mir told ThePrint that the condition across Kupwara is very critical especially in villages like Chowkibal, Tangdar and Machal even as the administration continues to rescue as many people as possible.
“Till now, at least 1,000 people have been rescued,” Mir told ThePrint, adding that many more are waiting to be rescued.
Heavy shelling began about 8 p.m.at night and continued till morning, said Tahir Zaman, a resident of Batpora village in Kupwara. The main target, he said, were villages that included Hajinar, Chowkibal, Kralpora and Panzgam. “In Hajinar, three houses were completely ruined, 15 got damaged and a masjid was severely hit.”
Such was the intensity of the shelling that people told each other that this might be “the final moment.” While the shelling has subsided in all border areas in the morning, Zaman said that there are fears of many upcoming similar horrifying nights. “There might not be anything beyond this for us now.”
In north Kashmir’s Uri area, cross-border shelling killed a woman in Mohura village, according to local residents.
Not just border villages
Kanwal Singh, a political analyst from Jammu city, shared the intense fear experienced by those living near the LoC during the escalation that took place last night. He recalled seeing a drone explode just meters away and the sleepless night that followed. “We never thought we would see drones over our heads.”
Many residents, Singh added, had to flee their homes, comparing the situation to the 1947 displacement in Poonch. “We are the first victims,” he said, emphasising that border communities bear the brunt of any conflict.
Singh expressed frustration at the role of national media, accusing it of spreading falsehoods during a time of crisis. “Truth has become the first casualty.” Misinformation, he warned, fuels mass hysteria and ignores the suffering of people on the ground. Meanwhile, crucial developments like the shelling in Poonch and Kupwara went unreported, he said.
“Had it not been for the S-400 (air defence system), the consequences could have been catastrophic,” Singh said, stressing that in today’s high-tech warfare, no city is safe.
Jammu remained under blackout for the second consecutive evening on Friday.
In Srinagar, Aqib Farooq, a resident, told ThePrint that it was a night of absolute panic for people in the city. “Our rooms were as dark as our lives,” he said, adding that fear, trauma and anxiety has gripped the entire valley.
While residents have experienced escalations before as well, Thursday’s felt scary as reports kept emerging from different places throughout the night, he said. “It is always dreadful to be thrown into a situation like this. Now we are waiting for our turn.”
That tension has reached to Kashmiris working out of the country. Khalid Ahmad, who lives in Qatar, told ThePrint that as he watches news coming out from Jammu and Kashmir, his anxiety has been constantly growing for his family back home.
His father, Ahmad said, would always answer the call positively and assure him that things would get better. “This time he said,’ It all should just end, once and for all’.”
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: ‘Some screamed with every thud, others prayed’—J&K residents recall night of Operation Sindoor