The guns have been silent, but for residents living along the Line of Control (LoC), who bore the brunt of cross-border shelling during the India-Pakistan conflict last year, the wounds remain fresh even one year after Operation Sindoor.
With their damaged dwellings yet to be fully repaired, the residents say the financial assistance provided by the government was inadequate and appealed to it to assist them in the speedy construction of their homes and safety bunkers for future exigencies.
Residents of Salamabad Uri, in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, say they were suffering as their houses remain in poor condition after being damaged in the shelling carried out Pakistan following Indian strikes on terror targets in Pakistan to avenge the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack.
Hundreds of families were affected by the shelling which started on the intervening night of May 7-8 from the Pakistani side, targeting residential areas, schools, religious structures and commercial properties. At least 15 people were killed and scores of others injured.
Talib Hussain, a local, said that while the government provided around Rs 3 lakh for the repair of damaged houses, the amount cannot cover the full construction costs.
‘Bunkers should have been built first’
“It is exactly a year after the shelling damaged our houses. We still remember the horrors that we faced. Our houses are incomplete. They (the government) gave us Rs 1.30 lakh first and then Rs 2 lakh. What can we do with that?” Hussain said.
He said the residents look towards the government for help. Hussain also flagged the issue of bunkers — community shelters that provide safe shelter from shelling. “We don’t have bunkers. They should have been constructed first. When firing takes place, the government becomes active and says it will construct bunkers, etc, but nothing has been done on that,” the resident said.
He said the government has maintained that Operation Sindoor is on, and the hostilities on the border can reignite. “Firing will keep on happening, so we need bunkers…. there is no certainty that it will not happen again,” he said on Operation Sindoor.
‘We still live in fear’
Another local, Saima, said while the guns have largely fallen silent, the residents still live in fear. “It has been a year. We still live under fear. Our houses were damaged, we don’t have houses now, and we live in a quarter. My father works as a labourer. How can he build the house?
“The government provided us Rs 3 lakh; what can be done with that? We appeal to the government to provide us with houses; we need a roof, where will we go?” she said. She also appealed to the government to construct more bunkers so that the residents can use the shelters in case of shelling in the future.
Zeenat, another resident of the area, who was injured in last year’s shelling, remembered the suffering caused to the people. “I was injured in the firing. I had to flee as the house suffered damage; it was on fire,” she recalled.
She said the government provided Rs 1.06 lakh compensation under the partial damage category for rebuilding her house and another Rs one lakh for treatment. “The money for treatment was spent on medicine, etc. What can be built in one lakh?” she questioned.
She appealed to the government to provide constructed houses to the victims of the shelling. “They should give us houses. We don’t have our houses. The war causes suffering, and we have suffered,” Zeenat added.
