In Kashmir, an uneasy peace holds amid fears of new violence

A week after fleeing artillery fire from across the border, Rina Begum returned to find her home in Kashmir devastated.

- By Aakash Hassan URI

The 45-year-old gazed out through a fractured window frame at the looming mountains. “Hell has been raining down from there,” she said.

Begum lives in a hamlet near Uri, a town 100km north-west of Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Kashmir. The hamlet is perilously close to the line of control, the heavily militarised de facto border dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

Tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours escalated into open military confrontation after a militant attack on 22 April killed 25 tourists and a local guide in Pahalgam. India accused Pakistan of having “linkages” to the attack, without publicly presenting evidence. Pakistan denied any involvement. Soon after, artillery fire erupted across the disputed frontier.

“It felt like my ears would burst from the explosions,” said Begum, who has witnessed previous skirmishes but described this as the most intense. “I thought we wouldn’t survive.” She fled to a nearby town with her husband and six-year-old daughter.