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A gaping hole to the ceiling of a house caused due the shelling on February 4. | Photo Credit:
THE HINDU
Bunkers not pandals
February is normally a time of celebration in Rajouri. The wedding season kicks off in December and lasts till March. The period is considered auspicious. But this time, wedding plans have been put off in
10 villages in the line of fire. All talk of weddings has given way to demands for concrete bunkers and bullet-proof ambulances.
The death of six civilians and devastation of 66 houses between May 2017 and January 2018 has forced locals to demand a “permanent solution” to Pakistani shelling.
In response, the administration has set up concrete bunkers for individual families. Each shelter measures 80 sq.ft. and can accommodate eight persons.
So far, 72 such bunkers have been constructed in the border areas and more are being planned. Community bunkers — measuring 800 sq feet — are also being constructed to accommodate around 40 people. The bunkers are expected to withstand the 120 mm shells fired from across the border.
Ms. Khursheeda and her husband Abdul Rehman, 55, had gone to attend a wedding in the
Rajdhani area of Rajouri when Pakistani troops rained 63 mortar shells on their village. Rehman left the wedding midway to rescue their three children from their home. He had barely escaped with them to a nearby concrete shelter when he saw his bedroom collapse in a heap of dust and smoke.
“One mortar shell hit the bedroom’s ceiling. Thanks to Allah, we could rescue our children,” Ms. Khursheeda said.
All 392 houses of Khamba village in Nowshera tehsil of Rajouri, spread over 3,671.4 hectares and home to 1,754 people, are vulnerable to shelling from across the border. On February 7, the wedding of Indu Lal’s son saw only 25 baratis (guests) heading to the bride’s place.
“From 2003 till 2014, when it was mostly peaceful between India and Pakistan, the weddings would attract not less than 250 guests. Those days are gone now,” recalled Jeet Kumar, a resident.
Mr. Kumar vividly remembers the shelling of May 14, 2017, which triggered a major wave of migration from Nowshera’s villages of Khamba, Sarya, Bhawani, Manpur, and Dhanka.
Unlike the Kumars, Muhammad Bashir’s family from Jhanjar village decided to stay back but paid a heavy price. Mr. Bashir lost his uncle Haji Tufail Ahmad and 14-year-old niece Asiya Jan in the mortar fire.
The farmer had decided to shift from Surankote in volatile Poonch to Jhanjar in 2005 as the ceasefire agreement — signed between India and Pakistan in 2003 — was still holding good. “There were no reports of hostility in 2005. I decided to purchase 30 kannals (3.75 acres) of land for farming here. I could hardly imagine a day when I would end up losing my family members for my crop,” Mr. Bashir said.
Lost harvest
The 2003 ceasefire agreement had led to an expansion of areas under maize and wheat cultivation in Nowshera’s border areas, stretching even beyond the fences.
But the escalating cycle of violence has hit farming hard, says Deputy Commissioner of Rajouri, Shahid Iqbal Choudhary. He cites stark figures: “6,000 border farmers in Nowshera sought insurance for the rabi crop under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana in the first quarter of 2017. However, for kharif, none came looking for insurance as no cultivation was carried out due to the shelling, which started in May and continued till December.” Farmers cannot claim any compensation for loss due to border skirmishes as the insurance policy covers only natural calamities.
Determined pupils
In July last year, 250 students and 15 teachers were trapped for six hours in three schools due to shelling by Pakistan. “We had to get bullet-proof vehicles from Jammu and Reasi to evacuate them,” Mr. Chaudhary said. “We require bullet-proof ambulances now,” he added.
Seventy kilometres from Rajouri in Jammu’s Poonch district, living “next to the enemy” was never as challenging as it has been since August 2017.
