Fear of shelling returns to haunt border villages

A 55-year-old man in a border village in Kashmir's Kupwara on Monday started cleaning an underground bunker which has been in neglect for over a decade.

- Mir Ehsan

SRINAGAR:

The bunker at Kandi village Tanghdar, in the neighbourhood of Mohammad Sayeed, was well kept in the days when shelling from across the Line of Control (LoC) was commonplace, a fear that has not crept up again in the minds of locals.

As tensions continue to rise between India and Pakistan in the aftermath of the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that claimed 26 lives, 25 tourists and a local, and the slew of actions that followed from both nations, residents of these hamlets apprehend a return to the old days of unrest, when they often had to evacuate their homes in fear of shelling, or worse, clean up after it brought down a wall or two in the village.

The locals clean up these bunkers with a fear in their minds that they will have to seek refuge there, even as they hope it does not turn to reality.