Six-year-old, BSF jawan killed in Pak shelling

Amir Karim Tantray

Tribune News Service

Abdullian (RS Pura), Oct 24

As skirmishes between India and Pakistan escalate on the International Border (IB), two more persons — a BSF jawan and a six-year-old child — were killed and eight injured during overnight shelling from the Pakistan side.

The BSF jawan killed in the shelling belonged to Pehowa in Kurukshetra, while the child belonged to Arnia district of Bihar.  His parents work as migrant labourers in Lalyal area of Jammu district.

Those injured included BSF Assistant Sub-Inspector RD Puri, who received a bullet injury in the leg, Krishna Devi of Arnia, Girdhari Lal of Sai Kalan, migrant labour from Bihar Ganiya and Sunil Kumar of Jajial. The identity of three other injured was yet to be ascertained. They were shifted to Government Medical College (GMC), Jammu.

The shelling and firing also left 50 heads of cattle dead and 182 injured. Overnight shelling was witnessed all along the IB in Jammu district and such was the intensity that the blasts were audible in Jammu city as well. Firing in RS Pura and Suchetgarh sectors stopped around 7 am whereas it continued in Kanachak till late afternoon.

“I was sleeping inside when a shell exploded on the rooftop of our house around midnight. It created a hole. After that, our entire family stayed put in one room, waiting for the sunrise,” said Lucky Choudhary of Abdullian village. “Shelling stopped after 7 am. We were able to move out of our house only after that,” he added. 

“We are not in a position to decide on whether to migrate to safer places or keep staying in the village. Migration is no solution as we have to leave behind everything, including cattle and crop,” said Mohinder Singh of Shahpur village in RS Pura sector.

As the threat of migration  looms large, the administration is keeping facilities ready. “The migration camp is in a working condition, but we haven’t asked people to migrate officially,” said Jammu DC Simrandeep Singh.

Meanwhile, schools in border areas remained closed for the second consecutive day today.