Border skirmishes in Kashmir paralyze daily life

By Aamir Latif

FORWARD KAHUTA, Azad Kashmir (AA) - Six-year-old Inam Sheikh had just snuggled into bed on Aug. 27, when a loud explosion flung him to the hard floor below.

He saw smoke, and heard two more explosions. The roof collapsed over him. When he next opened his eyes, he saw his father, uncle and aunt lying on the floor, covered in blood.

Their house, located on a foothill at Fatehpur village near the Line of Control -- a 740-kilometer-long (nearly 460 miles) border that divides the disputed Kashmir valley between India and Pakistan -- had come under a cross-border attack.

Such attacks have become routine since last September when at least 19 Indian soldiers were killed in an attack on an army camp in Jammu and Kashmir, which New Delhi blames on Pakistan, a charge Islamabad denies.

The attack broke the 2003 cease-fire agreement between the two nuclear-armed neighbors, and unleashed a series of border clashes that have claimed 130 lives on both sides.

The most recent attack on Aug. 27 destroyed Inam’s house completely.

"The first mortar landed in the backyard of our house. The second directly hit our house blowing off the roof,” Shaikh Raza-ul-Haq, the head of the ill-fated family, told Anadolu Agency.

- 'They destroyed everything'

The walls and floor of the house are dotted with holes and craters caused by shrapnel.

"They destroyed everything we owned. Two of my nephews and a niece who were visiting us for Eid were also injured in the attack,” said Haq, fighting back tears.

As locals of the area gathered to share their ordeal, a huge explosion rocked the area. It was a mortar shell fired by the Indian army.

An exchange of fire on both sides followed, with short and long intervals, for the next two hours of the interview on Sunday. It rattled the house.

Schools that had opened two weeks after Aug. 27 closed once again following the fresh round of border skirmishes.

Locals said normalcy had returned to their village after 2003, when the area was hit only twice by Indian shelling.

“Life changed in the last year. We had dismantled our bunkers and mud houses and constructed concrete houses. We had developed our farmlands,” said Tabarak Hussein, a farmer.

- Crops, livestock damaged

Shallow rooms made of mud are the only defense unarmed civilians have when shelling occurs, as mud does not cause the injuries building material, like bricks and concrete blocks may, when it crumbles.

“They [Indian army] fire indiscriminately. The [Pakistan] army is prepared, they have bunkers and weapons. But we are civilians, and all this violence has left us psychologically drained,” Hussein added.

A Pakistani army major said his troops always responded “befittingly” to the Indian shelling, but were careful not to target civilians.

“The Indian army has no restrictions. But we cannot hit civilians on the other side of the border as they are our Kashmiri brothers,” he added, requesting anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

The string of cross-border clashes has damaged farmland and livestock -- major sources of income for residents of the area.

“Fear paralyzes people after every incident of shelling. When they overcome it, and step out of their houses to attend to their livestock or farmland, another spell of firing occurs,” said Mehtab Aziz, a resident of Neelam Valley, one of the most affected border areas.

Hussein fears the current situation may lead to shortage of food in the region.

- Possible tourism

“Our village is cut off from the main city for four to five months of winter. We usually stock food and other items. But the ongoing shelling has damaged our crops.”

Lack of medical facilities adds to their woes. The only full-fledged hospital is a six-hour-drive away, and many injured succumb to their wounds on the way.

Scores of spots in border areas can be turned into tourist destinations because of their breathtaking scenery, glistening lakes, and snow-capped mountains. But a poor road network, lack of tourism-related facilities, and the conflict have deprived the locals of this economic opportunity.

The Muslim-majority region, is mostly divided between India and Pakistan and the two countries have fought two wars over Kashmir since 1947.

Resistance groups in Jammu Kashmir have fought for independence from India or for unification with Pakistan. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict since 1989.

India maintains half a million troops in the valley.