No peace to mourn: Citizens of Jammu bear the cost of violence by Pakistan

Chalyari village, Jammu: In Jammu, even the peace to mourn is denied for the thousands of people living alongside the tense India-Pakistan borders these days. Suman Bhagat, 15, has been unable to find a moment of peace, or even a place where she can properly mourn the death of her mother, Pholi Bhagat, 32, and her grandmother Shakuntla Devi, who were killed when a mortar shell landed inside their home at 7:45 am on Wednesday. Suman was the only person who escaped. Another four people in her family were injured in the strike. A resident of Chalyari village on the IB in Jammu, Suman left her village on 7 October along with other residents, when firing escalated. However most of them would leave during the night, but return in the morning, where they would stay inside their homes. “I want to see my mother, where is my father?,” Suman screams before falling unconscious. Fearing more shell attacks, the family has not even managed to bury the bodies as yet. [caption id=“attachment_1749531” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PTI[/caption] This village in Samba district, with its potholed roads and narrow lanes stands in mute testimony to what senseless violence does to innocent civilians, whose only crime is living too close to the action. Farms have been destroyed, along with mud and brick houses. Thousand of villagers have fled their homes. All you can see on the deserted streets are unexploded shells and dead cattle, while the smell of explosives remains in the air. As night approached on Wednesday, an overpowering silence which has been a permanent feature of this village since the firing started, was only broken by the moaning of injured buffalos. Carcasses of dead animals lie on the roads killed by the mortar shelling. Who must have thought about them, when people had to run for their own lives? Mohinder Pal, a pharmacist tells Firstpost that there are more than two hundred cows who have got splinters of shells and can’t walk. “So they are dying slowly, and the doctor who was supposed come to treat them is afraid of coming to village.” he says. When Shakuntla Devi Baghat and her daughter-in-law Poli Devi were killed early on Wednesday, bringing the toll of people killed in a week to eight, and number of injured to 75, Pakistani rangers had targeted 50 Border Out Posts and 35 border hamlets with mortar bombs and heavy firing that led to a migration never seen since 2003. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that “everything will be fine soon” on the border clashes, but nothing seems to be fine on the ground. The divisional commissioner of Jammu Shantamnue says that more than 6,000 people have been relocated, but sources says more than 15,000 people have become internally displaced in the recent firing. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has directed the state administration to take all requisite measures for ensuring the safety of the people living in areas hit by border shelling. But nothing has changed for the villagers who say that they were taken by surprise when Pakistani rangers fired on them on Wednesday morning. This village alone was targeted multiple times. On Thursday morning the only people who roamed the streets were an old couple, just back from a refugee camp, who wanted to find out what happened to their house. “We just want to see what happened to our house. We are even ready to live in a refugee camp for a few months but this time the government should teach Pakistan a lesson,” Ramesh Lal, 61, who has been living in a nearby school says.