People are seen through the windshield of a bus damaged by a cross-border shelling in Poonch near the Line of Control (LoC) between India and Pakistan, May 8, 2025
On Wednesday night, Ghulam Nabi was jolted awake by a loud boom. Moments later, another explosion followed, accompanied by the rat-a-tat of gunfire. Feeling unsafe inside his house, him and his family, in the dead of night, rushed towards a nearby underground bunker to protect themselves from the shelling by Pakistani forces from across the border.
The 65-year-old man and his family spent the entire night inside the dingy bunker with water seeping in from the ground below.
The next day, the family moved to Uri town, where the administration arranged for their stay at a local college.
Ghulam Nabi, a resident of Silikot, a border village in north Kashmir’s Uri sector, says that he has seen such a heavy shelling for the first time in his life.
“I had not seen such a horrific situation even during the 1971 war”, he said.
Barring a few sporadic incidents of cross-border firing, the Line of Control (LoC) had fallen largely silent after India and Pakistan inked a cease fire agreement along the LoC in 2003 and reaffirmed it in 2021.
However, in the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack and the subsequent Operation Sindoor by the Indian armed forces, Pakistan resorted to artillery shelling along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir, killing at least 15 people, including children, and injuring dozens.
In the Valley, Uri sector has witnessed continuous shelling over the past two days, resulting in the death of a woman and injuries to several others. Dozens of residential houses were also damaged in the heavy cross-border shelling. The most affected villages included Silikot, Boniyar, Dardkote, Lagamn, Kamalkote, Mohra and Gingle.
Naveed Bukhtiyar, a lawyer and social activist from Uri told buinesslline that heavy firing from across the border started at 9.30 pm and continued until 2.30 am.
“From 2.30 onward, the shelling went on intermittently until early morning”, said Bhuktiyar.
“It was so horrific. The situation here remains grim”, he said.
Bukhtiyar said that a deep sense of fear had gripped the entire area following the intense cross-border shelling.
In the Tanghdar, Keran and Karnah sectors of Kupwara district, heavy cross-border shelling was reported, prompting residents to move to safer locations.
According to residents, many houses were extensively damaged in the cross-border shelling.
Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, visited several villages in the Uri sector on Friday to assess the damage caused by Pakistani shelling. He directed the district administration to provide immediate relief to those affected by it.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah also visited camps in Jammu and Samba to take stock of the relief arrangements for the people evacuated amidst cross-border shelling.
Poonch in cross hairs
“The firing began at 11 pm on Thursday and continued for several hours,” said a panic-stricken resident from Baila village, about 35 km from Poonch.
He added that some shells landed near his house and also struck a school in the area.
Poonch has been heavily battered by cross-border firing with nearly all casualties reported from the area.
Over the past three nights, heavy artillery shelling claimed the lives of at least 15 people and left more than 45 others injured.
More Like This
Published on May 9, 2025