Srinagar: Muneer Hussain vividly remembers the horrific day of November 13, 2020, when a heavy mortar shell fired by Pakistani troops from across the Line of Control (LoC) landed on a ration shop in their village in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.

“Two residents of our village were killed in the explosion. My brother Nadir Hussain suffered grave injuries and doctors had to amputate both his legs in order to save his life,” says Hussain, a resident of Kamalkote village in Uri, who has served in the army.

The terrorist attack in Pahalgam has revived the rattle of machine guns along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir. 

“This morning, we heard the sounds of small firearms again. No one is sure what will happen,” he says.

The border town of Uri in Baramulla district of north Kashmir, some 100 km from the summer capital of Srinagar, shares its entire boundary with the LoC, making it a hotspot of any military escalation.

According to officials, Pakistan resorted to unprovoked small arms firing for the ninth consecutive night of May 2-3 along the LoC in Kupwara and Uri of Kashmir valley, and Akhnoor sector of Jammu, despite a hotline conversation between the Directorate Generals of Military Operations of India and Pakistan on Tuesday.

“Indian Army responded promptly and proportionately,” a defence spokesman said.

A frequent scare

Although there have been no deaths of civilians or injuries so far, the skirmishes have certainly raised anxieties and fears among the border residents like Hussain who often pay a heavy price for any military escalation between India and Pakistan.

Shelling from Pakistan directly impacts the lives and livelihoods, according to border residents who spoke over phone with The Wire.

In the past, dozens of villages close to the LoC, some of which need special access permits, have seen death and destruction due to heavy mortar shells fired by Pakistani troops, forcing thousands of residents to abandon their homes and farms.

Residents of Uri, where the armies of India and Pakistan are locked in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation at many places, say that the schools are turned into temporary shelters during ceasefire violations, which impacts the education of their children.

‘The first victims’

In 2021, two years after the Pulwama suicide bombing sparked off fresh armed confrontations along the LoC, India and Pakistan had agreed to uphold the ceasefire agreement through a joint statement. 

Border residents were the direct beneficiaries of peace. As guns fell silent, these residents saw a dramatic change in their social and economic status with bumper crop yields and stable livelihoods.

Lal Din Khatana, a former sarpanch in Uri, says that his village had benefited from the calm that had prevailed over the last two years.

“When the ceasefire (agreement) was in place, people were living in peace. Life was good; farmers sowed their crops without fear and children went to school normally. But if there is any escalation, we will become the first victims,” says Khatana, a resident of Churduna village. 

He says that the residents of Churunda were not sure how long the ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan was going to hold in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terrorist attack. 

“Earlier, our village used to have mud-houses with roofs made of heavy wooden logs which offered some protection from shells. But only four or five such structures remain now as most villagers have built shelters of tin sheets which would be torn into pieces if they are hit by mortars,” he adds.

Deepening fears

The subdivision of Uri has a population of 74,867 residents, as per 2011 Census, but the dearth of underground bunkers, which have been constructed by the government for border residents along the LoC, has deepened the fears.

According to reports, 42 bunkers are being constructed in Uri. “Not a single community bunker has been built by the government in our village. All the shelters were damaged in the 2005 earthquake. There is a lot of tension,” says Hussain.

Mohammad Rafiq Balote, a resident of Gharkote village, says that the perpetual sounds of small firearms recently has triggered a fresh round of fear. 

Balote recalls an incident from 1995, when a farmer watering his wheat field was killed by a mortar shell.  

“Bullets don’t ask about the religion or caste of their targets. They kill without discrimination, leaving deep scars behind. I was a child at that time but the incident remains etched on my mind,” says Balote. Two of his brothers are in the army. 

Another resident of Uri tells The Wire over phone that there was an uneasy calm in his village which falls perilously close to the LoC. He says that a border post of the Pakistan army was visible from his village and residents would have to bear the brunt if a major escalation were to take place. 

“We are hopeful that better sense will prevail. Both the countries are nuclear powers and if a war breaks out, no one will survive. We will be the first ones to die,” he says, wishing to remain anonymous. 

Rafiq, a small real estate business owner in Gharkote village, also notes how the residents have been hearing small arms firing over the past week after the diplomatic and military relations between India and Pakistan turned sour in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack.

Expressing his concerns over the uncertainty of the situation, he says, “70 percent of the villagers have completed sowing their crops but the ominous sound of firing has revived the old fears and uncertainty. We don’t want a war.”

“If a war breaks out, only God can protect us,” Rafiq says.

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