Mortar Memory

Along the quiet stretches near the border and the Line of Control in Jammu, a fragile calm once held sway, until the sudden thunder of heavy mortar shells since May 7 shattered it

- Ishfaq Naseem

"IN Poonch town, the raining mortars did not appear to care much for religion, age or routine.

A large green and white wall of a 50-year-old large Islamic seminary, the Jamia Zia-ul-Uloom, still carries the scars where shrapnel tore through recently. In it, on a bed, a 47-year-old teacher lay soaked in blood, before doctors at a local hospital declared him dead. Down the road, a 12-year-old child, drenched in blood, collapsed and died in the arms of a middle-aged man. In another street in the town, a mortar shell rammed through the ceiling of a house; its scraps tearing apart a Sikh man's turban, leaving his nephew dead.

In Poonch, there's barely a street where people haven't either wailed for lost kin or called for help as mortars whistled down on them from the ridgelines along the Line of Control (LoC). The shells "indiscriminately" fell in crowded lanes, past shopfronts or low-roofed homes.

Until 2019, a bus ran across this border, transferring people, goods and shards of culture across either side. Now, it's time to hunker down in bunkers and count the walls mangled by the mayhem. Elsewhere in Jammu's border belt, residents crouch in corners, familiar with the drill. Each fresh round of fire revives memories-Pulwama in 2019, the Parliament attack in 2001, the war in 1971...

In Jammu and Kashmir, over 590 villages with a combined population of more than six lakh are located within five kilometres of the Line of Control (LOC) and International Border (IB) in the five districts of Kathua, Samba, Jammu, Poonch and Rajouri in the Jammu division. Of these, around 448 villages remain vulnerable to direct artillery fire from Pakistan.

India has accused Pakistan of repeated ceasefire violations, with small arms fire a routine occurrence along the LoC and IB. Since 2018, incidents of ceasefire violations and crossborder firing in Jammu and Kashmir have steadily increased.