New Delhi: In Batpora, a village in north Kashmir’s Kupwara, resident Nazir Ahmed had moved into a double-storey house he had “starved himself to construct” just two months before cross-border shelling began 7 May, the day India launched Operation Sindoor against terror infrastructure in Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror attack.
A night later, Ahmed saw his house, just 10 km away from the Line of Control (LoC), turn to ashes in front of his eyes—his hard work and dreams crumbling with the building.
“I had starved myself to construct the house. My hair literally turned grey. Just a day earlier, I had installed an inverter and had not even paid the amount completely. Now, nothing is left,” Ahmed, a 41-year-old bus driver, told ThePrint over phone.
He said he was sleeping inside the house on the night of 8 May when he was woken up by several loud thuds, each one seeming closer than the last. Scared, he decided to flee to a safer area with his family.
He had just left his house and moved towards the farms outside when he heard a loud blast from behind. When Ahmed turned back, he saw that his house along with at least five others nearby had caught fire. One of the explosives or shells had hit a car parked outside one of the houses, which in turn had blasted and the fire instantly spread across the nearby buildings and shops, he said.
In the days since the incident, Ahmed has been living on the road outside his burnt house with his wife and two kids.
“We have been living on the road under a tree. I keep looking at my house from a distance and realise how everything ended in a moment,” he told ThePrint, adding that he and his family have barely eaten anything since the incident. “Somebody gave us dinner last night. Today I haven’t even had water.”
While the family keeps looking at the politicians and officials coming to meet them, hoping they would provide them a safe space to live, Ahmed said no help has been given by the local authorities, so far. “Politicians tell us that they will help us, but in reality, we are on our own,” he said. “They are mere promises.”
Ahmed’s family is among several such locals in border areas including Uri, Poonch and Rajouri who are only left with rubble and ashes to return to, in the wake of the four-day conflict that ended with a ceasefire agreement on the evening of 10 May.
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‘We can’t afford to lose again’
The shelling incident led to at least six houses burning down completely, leaving not just Ahmed’s but other families also homeless.
In the past week, several local politicians as well as Kupwara deputy commissioner Ayushi Sudan have met such families and reassured them that help would be provided.
Tuesday morning, Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah visited Kupwara. In a post on ‘X’, he wrote: “Continuing my visit to shelling-affected areas, I’ve set out for Tangdhar in district Kupwara to assess the ground situation first-hand. The government stands with every affected family, ensuring safety, support and swift rehabilitation remains our utmost priority.”
In another post, Omar shared pictures from his visit and appreciated the people of Tangdhar for showing “remarkable courage”. “The government stands shoulder to shoulder with them, their pain will not go unnoticed, and every possible step will be taken to help them rebuild their lives with dignity and renewed hope,” he said.
Visited the shelling-affected areas of Tangdhar and met families who have shown remarkable courage amidst deep pain. Their resilience is inspiring. The government stands shoulder to shoulder with them, their pain will not go unnoticed, and every possible step will be taken to… pic.twitter.com/tJ16yL5W6N
— Office of Chief Minister, J&K (@CM_JnK) May 13, 2025
However, ThePrint spoke to at least four residents of the affected Batpora locality who all said that the administration has not provided help till now.
One of these is Nazir Ahmed’s neighbour Tasweer, a 34-year-old daily-wage worker, who shared a similar ordeal with ThePrint over phone.
In the shelling and subsequent fire, Tasweer’s house was also razed. And like Ahmed, he has been living on the road with not even tents provided by the local administration, he said.
“We have not changed our clothes or eaten proper food in all these days. Everything has gone with our house,” he said, adding that sometimes, relatives or neighbours provide food but mostly families like his have been starving. “Even our documents are gone. We don’t know how to restart again.”
ThePrint reached out to Sudan and Nasir Sogami, adviser to the CM, for a comment through calls and messages. This report will be updated if and when they respond.
It had taken several years to finish the construction of his modest house, Tasweer said. In 2011, he moved into it with his wife and three children who are now 16, 14 and 11 years old.
“For days, my children have not taken a bath or washed their faces. We are thankful to god for saving our lives but this is not what my children deserve,” he said.
Bilal Ahmed, another 21-year-old Batpora resident who lost his house in the same fire, told ThePrint that with other areas subject to extreme shelling, fire services took a long time to reach their locality to douse the fire. By then, the houses and their belongings had completely gone up in flames.
Bilal said the incident has left the children particularly traumatised, as they keep repeating that they cannot return to their house.
He added that the area’s residents are demanding rehabilitation from the government and do not wish to restart their lives in the same locality due to fears of a similar incident happening in the future.
“India-Pakistan tensions can escalate again. What do we know?” he said, asserting that the future is uncertain. “We cannot afford to restart and lose everything again.”
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)