Always under threat & fear, Tarn Taran border village residents demand land for relocation

Residents of Thehkala, Gilpan and some other villages, lying just a few metres away from the border fence with Pakistan, would have to wait for more days to see normalcy in their routine life. And it will take some more time for their families to return to their homes.

The residents of the villages have demanded free residential plots in nearby Khalra town to live a peaceful and stress-free life.

After the escalation of tensions between India and Pakistan last week, most of the residents of these village migrated from their villages to the nearby township of Khalra. The residents are still under terror as they also saw the breach of the ceasefire violation.

The villages of Gilpan and Thehkala are situated a few yards away from the border town of Khalra across the first defence drain. The fencing installed on the border is visible from their homes. Residents of the villages also suffered huge losses and lost a peaceful existence during the 1965 and 1971 wars with Pakistan.

Arashdeep Singh, sarpanch of Gilpan, and Yodha Singh, sarpanch of Thehkala, said here on Monday that they have been living under constant fear whether there is war or no war as they often see drone activities and bombshells from across the border.

They said during four to five days of escalation of tensions between India and Pakistan last week, most families of the villages used to leave their houses to be at a safer place daily in the evening and return home in the morning. They said the families are yet to return to their homes. They said they have been demanding plots in Khalra town to build houses to live a peaceful life as they have suffered a huge financial loss in the wars.

Every time there is tension between the two countries, residents of both the villages are forced to send their families to safer places. In their case, the Indian side of the defence drain is safer than the present location of their villages. “We do not feel that the ceasefire would hold for long as Pakistan has a history of breaking promises and patronising terrorists,” said the sarpanches of the villages.

Residents of the villages stated that if they are allotted merely four acres of land on the Indian side behind the defence drain, they can build their homes and it would mean a peaceful life for them on the border. “Of course, men would have to go to their fields, but at least our families would be able to

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sleep peacefully,” they said.

Most of the residents of the villages are poor and landless. In both the villages, there are just 125 families and have just 500 acres of agriculture land. In Thehkala village, all the 50 families are from the poor background and in Gilpan, out of the 80 families, half the number of families do farming and the other half are working class families. The sarpanches said the residents of the villages met Khemkaran MLA Sarwan Singh Dhunn and raised their demands for residential plots.