Amid eerie calm, border residents don’t want to take a chance

“We have seen in the past how Pakistan backstabs us and targets civilians, even as they have stopped firing since Saturday night, but we don’t want to take any chance,” said Surat Singh, a resident of Pallanwala village in Akhnoor. The residents of the villages along the border say that they are worried about their future as their standing crop would get damaged if they don’t tend to it in the next few days. 

“People are concerned here. On Saturday, Pakistan targeted civilian areas in our sector. After that, we have decided to shift our children, female members and elders to safer locations,” said Daya Ram, a resident of Pargwal village in Khour tehsil. He said the male members who stay back in their villages during the daytime take shelter in the government set up camps at night. We have shifted our family members to our relatives’ houses in Jammu city,” Prem Singh, another resident of the village said. He said the people are worried about the education of their children as they had to abandon their studies midway to relocate to safer locations.

Pakistan has stepped up cross-border firing after the surgical strikes on September 29 by the India Army to destroy terror launchpads in Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir. As a precautionary measure, the authorities have ordered the indefinite closure of all educational intuitions in the border areas. The Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh On Sunday toured the border areas and took a first-hand view of the arrangements that have been put in place at  the safe camps for the border residents.