Border villages evacuated

Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 29

Just a few hours after India announced it had carried out surgical strikes across the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir to eliminate terrorists, Punjab on Thursday started the exercise of evacuating thousands of villagers residing near the Pakistan border and shut down schools as a precaution in case of any retaliation.

About 1,000 villages up to 10 km from the International Border were asked to be evacuated and Punjab Police were deployed in the border districts to assist the paramilitary forces and the Army in the second line of defence. DGP (Law and Order) Hardeep Dhillon, besides senior bureaucrats, would camp at Amritsar.

Though there was no exchange of fireor visible Army build-up, for the civilians it was akin to a warlike situation.

Reports from Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Ferozepur and Fazilka said hundreds of villagers had moved to relief camps set up in the district headquarters. People were seen transporting household goods and livestock in scenes reminiscent of the 1965, 1971 and Kargil wars. The Retreat ceremonies at Wagah, Hussainiwala and Sadiqi were held without public presence. 

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said these were precautionary steps to prevent civilian loss in case of any misadventure from across the border. He said the Centre had asked for the safety of villagers. Badal has released Rs 1 crore for each border district.