Once thought by local people to be the abode of a fairy named Shamsa, the 12,000-foot high Shamsbari mountain towers calmly over the often restive Lipa valley. There are no border incursions by militants and no retaliatory Indian fire to drive residents out of their homes and into the underground bunkers. But people are keeping their fingers crossed as militants in small groups start trickling into the valley in time for snows to melt on high mountain passes. To the north of Shamsbari, the glaciated ridges of Bimla mountain are not so quiet. Indian guns have been spitting fire into the Neelum valley below throughout the winter months, cutting off traffic on large sections of a 200-km road between Muzaffarabad and Keil.
