Shelling fear haunts Arnia residents

Arteev Sharma

Tribune News Service

Arnia, December 4

The fear of Pakistani shelling has deepened in the mind of border villagers to such an extent that they look for safety even when celebratory crackers are burst during marriages or other occasions.

Arnia town, about 45 km from district headquarters, is located close to the International Border but it never felt the brunt of ceasefire violations by Pakistan since the 1971 Indo-Pak war till September 2014. The life of border residents has changed completely in the past three years as Pakistan has directly targeted civilian areas up to seven kilometre from the border in Arnia since then.

India shares 198-km International Border with Pakistan in the Jammu region that runs from Paharpur on the Kathua-Punjab border to the Chicken’s Neck area of Akhnoor.

“Local people have now stopped bursting crackers in the marriages. Even when a ‘baraat’ comes to the village, and people burst crackers, villagers many times run for safety inside their houses. We are quite uncertain about border skirmishes as anything can happen anytime,” said Darshan Lal, a village resident.

Darshan Lal, who runs a sweetmeat shop in Arnia town, had received splinter injuries on January 29, 2015, when a shell exploded outside his shop. He underwent three surgeries and spent lakhs of rupees on his treatment but got only Rs 5,000 cash assistance from the government.

“I fell unconscious and remained in hospital for 22 days. The incident completely shattered my life as I can’t walk smoothly now. One of my legs was broken and a plate was inserted in it. I was the only breadwinner of the family but now I find it difficult to make both ends meet,” he said while regretting that the government had offered no help to him.

Another victim, Tilak Raj, a septuagenarian, has been rendered bedridden after a shell exploded in the verandah of his “kutcha” house in October 2014. He sustained grievous injuries and his right leg had to be amputated. “I used to earn livelihood for my family through farming, but now I am now dependent on others.”

“I submitted photostat copies of medical documents to officers concerned a number of times but all in vain. I got a meagre compensation of Rs 5,000 from the administration. Politicians do come to the village but only for photo-ops. The only achievement of the Modi government is that it has increased the number of physically challenged persons in border areas due to Pakistani shelling manifold and it cares least about their livelihood,” said Tilak Raj.

A BSF source said Pakistan has violated the truce between the two countries 107 times this year so far while there were 221 violations along the International Border in 2016. The number was 253 in 2015 but in 2014 there had been a spurt in ceasefire violations with 430 such incidents. A total of 457 villages with a population of 4,51,856 are located along the International Border and the Line of Control in Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Poonch and Rajouri districts in the Jammu region.

Schooling badly hit

Border skirmishes have left a deep impact on the schoolgoing children because schools have become a target of Pakistani mortar shells. All government schools remained closed in Arnia from September 15 to October 3 this year but its impact was witnessed for almost one and a half months as children did not return to the schools due to the fear of shelling. “We are worried about the future of the children. Any skirmish along the border puts brakes on the normal classwork. There is no dearth of talent but children need peace,” said a teacher at Government High School, Arnia.