E-Paper
Covid-19 fear, Pak shelling hits J&K border residents with double whammy
While villagers blamed Pakistani forces for aggravating their miseries, they also criticised the civil administration for not providing underground bunkers.
At a time when the world has been trying to combat Covid -19, hapless villagers along the Line of Control (LoC) and international border in Jammu and Kashmir, claimed that “trigger-happy Pakistan army has made their lives a living hell”.
Caught in a Catch 22 situation, villagers, especially along the LoC in Poonch and Rajouri district were being subjected to intense shelling by the Pakistan army for the past over 20 days now.
While villagers blamed Pakistani forces for aggravating their miseries, they also criticised the civil administration for not providing underground bunkers.
“The intense shelling by Pakistan has made our lives miserable. They are deliberately targeting villagers. Our children, women, and seniors are getting injured. We constantly live in fear,” said 55-year old Bagh Hussain Rathore, a resident of Salamabad in Shahpur sector of Poonch.
“In these difficult times, we are as good as dead. Pakistan, for the past 20 days now has been opening artillery fire on villages in Balakote, Gulpur, Shahpur, Mankote, Kirni sectors,” he added.
“We cannot move out of our houses because of the lockdown imposed to combat coronavirus and on the other hand Pakistan has been targeting human habitations with artillery fire,” he said.
Tufail Hussain, 32, a labourer from Gotrian Mandhar village on zero lines said, “We are totally perplexed. Instead of combating the Covid-19 in their country, the Pakistan army has been targeting poor villagers on the border.”
Hussain said that every five minutes Pakistani troops rain down a barrage of mortars on Indian villages in the Poonch sector.
He said that the civil administration has not provided bunkers to households on the borders.
On Friday, an 18-year-old youth was injured in Pak shelling in the Kerni sector of Poonch while three civilians including an 8-year-old boy were killed last week in Pak shelling in Kupwara.
