War hysteria grips areas close to LoC in Jammu

JAMMU: As tension mounted on the border after India conducted surgical strikes across the Line of Control (LoC) on Wednesday night, the J&K Government this afternoon asked people living in the vulnerable places on the international border (IB) and the LoC to move to safer zones.

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, September 29

As tension mounted on the border after India conducted surgical strikes across the Line of Control (LoC) on Wednesday night, the J&K Government this afternoon asked people living in the vulnerable places on the international border (IB) and the LoC to move to safer zones.

According to official data, 48,543 families, which live close to the LoC and the IB, had to be given shelter in the wake of shelling from across the border in 2013 and 2015. A total of 457 villages covering 4,51,856 people are located at the IB and the LoC in Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Poonch and Rajouri districts of the Jammu region. Deputy Commissioner, Jammu, Simranjeet Singh said 40 to 45 vulnerable hamlets along the IB had been identified in Jammu district only. “We have informed the inhabitants of these villages to move to safer places,” the Jammu Deputy Commissioner said, adding that the residents of these villages always bear the brunt of border tension.

Kathua Deputy Commissioner Ramesh Kumar also confirmed that the evacuation of the people living in vulnerable areas had been started. “We have already identified vulnerable villages and the residents have been asked to move to safer places,” said Kumar. Around 50 vulnerable villages have been identified in Kathua district. Kumar said the authorities had already prepared a plan to evacuate other villagers to safer places within 30 minutes in case the situation worsened further.

Deputy Commissioner, Samba, Sheetal Nanda said the authorities were keeping a strict vigil on the situation. “We have already prepared a contingency plan to evacuate the people at the time of the crisis,” Nanda said. Deputy Commissioner, Poonch, Haroon Malik, while confirming that a contingency plan was already in place, said the authorities had initially asked people living within the radius of 2 km of the LoC to remain alert. “We have already formulated a plan to evacuate people within no time in case of any eventuality,” Malik said.

Although an eerie silence prevailed all along the (IB) from Kathua to Akhnoor and on the LoC, fear has gripped the residents of the border areas because there is an apprehension that the Pakistan army may target civilian areas in retaliation.

Reports from the Samba, Ramgarh, Arnia, Hiranagar, RS Pura, Suchetgarh, Akhnoor, Nowshera and Rajouri sectors said the security forces guarding the borders had been put on high alert.

The BSF has intensified patrolling on the IB to keep a strict vigil on the activities from across the border.

Reports from Kathua and Samba districts said tension was high in the villages situated along the IB because these villages have always bore the brunt of the firing from across the border.