Uneasy calm in J&K border villages

The twin capitals of Srinagar and Jammu are calm. So are other cities and towns across Jammu and Kashmir. Though there is not much military activity visible on the ground, the news that Indian Army conducted surgical strikes along the Line of Control (LoC) overnight has, however, triggered anxiety and left behind an uneasy calm in areas falling in close proximity of the de facto border.

The situation is more tense in villages along the stretch of the International Border (IB) in Jammu, Kathua and Samba districts than in those falling close to the 740-km-long LoC in Rajouri-Poonch-Baramulla-Kupwara-Bandipore-Kargil districts, reports received here said. People from Arnia, Suchetgarh, Ranbir Singh Pura, Kanachak, Pargwal and Nagri Parole sub-sectors along the IB have started moving to safer places, not willing to take risks, reports said.

“Some families have done that on their own. More may follow, but there are no orders from us or the Army,” said a police officer from Kathua speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Significantly, in Uri, where the killing of 18 soldiers in a terror strike earlier this month resulted in sudden escalation in hostilities between India and Pakistan with the Army’s retaliatory measure Wednesday night carrying the risk of a bigger conflict between the nuclear-armed rivals, the situation was unruffled. “There is no tension here as there are no signs of any military build up,” Irshad Ahmed, a resident of Uri, said over the phone. His neighbour Chaudhary Mushtaq Ahmed, however, cautioned that if war was to break out between the two sides, “we the people living along the border areas will be the main sufferers. Naturally, then, no one here wants war.”

Villages in frontier districts of Baramulla, Kupwara and Bandipore that, like those in Kathua, Samba, Jammu, Poonch and Rajouri districts in the Jammu region and Kargil in Ladakh, were among the worst hit in two of the three wars India and Pakistan have fought over Kashmir since Independence, remained similarly calm in the wake of the Army’s response. “People, though, have started talking about the worst as war fears surround our region again,” said Abdul Majeed Piswal of Tangdhar (Kupwara). “Hamara bahut nuqsan hoga (we stand to lose a lot),” he added, recalling that the November 2003 ceasefire agreement had brought relief especially to the border-dwellers.

The Army’s tactical surgical strikes, meanwhile, led Hurriyat Conference to accuse the BJP government and Indian electronic media of creating “war hysteria” between the two countries. Reacting to the development, the amalgam of Kashmiri separatist parties said in a statement that the surgical strikes and the firing that reportedly killed two Pakistani soldiers were “unjustified and provocative”. It added that war is not the option to resolve issues. “In fact, wars have only worsened situations and created new problems. We have seen that happening thrice in the past,” the statement said, urging India and Pakistan to resolve their issues “through dialogue and mutual engagement as that alone would be in the interest of the people of the region.”