Many border residents refuse to leave their homes

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Thakur Pur (Gurdaspur), September 30 

As villages in the border states clear out for the fear of a retaliation from Pakistan a day after the Army conducted surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, police in Gurdaspur’s Thakur Pur village have a dilemma.

Although the government has ordered villages within 10 km of the India-Pakistan border to be cleared, Thakur Pur’s residents have refused to leave their homes, telling the police that they would only go when “firing actually begins from across the border”.

Residents of some 100 villages in Dorangla, Behrampur, Dinanagar, Narot Jaimal Singh and Baimal blocks had a long night of anxiety as they waited for sounds of gunfire to rattle their peace. When none came, they changed their minds about leaving.

Many who left on Thursday also returned saying their paddy crops needed harvesting, leaving shelters especially marked to house the evacuees already wearing a deserted look.

Villagers reason that if a night like that could pass peacefully, there is nothing to fear. Some even drew parallels with the war of 1971. Jodh Singh, an ex-serviceman from the village, said the village could hear sounds of gunfire for nearly a week during the war.

“This time, apart from high decibel sounds being made by the administration, nothing much is happening. Yesterday night was the right time if the enemy wanted to attack us. That particular time period has passed peacefully and now we see no threat.”

Villagers’ stubborn refusal to change their minds has left authorities floundering.

“On the first day yesterday, we managed to evacuate some people. But today everybody seems to be stubborn. All our efforts are turning out to be futile,” said an SP-rank officer.

Gurdaspur SSP Jasdeep Singh admitted that his force had trouble convincing people to leave.

“We are telling them that a strike is possible. However, they tell us that strike or no strike, they will not go anywhere,” he said.

Villagers of Thakur Pur are not alone in their thinking. Reports of people refusing to leave have come from other hamlets in the district, as well as those from neighbouring Pathankot.

Meanwhile, BSF has stopped farmers from crossing the wire fencing between the two countries to till their lands — a task that, until Thursday, 85 farmers from Thakur Pur would carry on each day with the BSF guarding them.

“Since Thursday afternoon, we have locked the gate. We are not allowing anybody to cross over,” said the two jawans manning the post.