Villagers relive a nightmare

URI, June 1: The continuous exchange of fire has caused panic among the residents of Uri and adjoining villages, who still have not forgo...

URI, June 1: The continuous exchange of fire has caused panic among the residents of Uri and adjoining villages, who still have not forgotten last year’s heavy shelling that killed more than 50 villagers.

Though the exchange of small-arm fire is a routine matter, its intensity has increased in villages situated near the Line of Control (LoC) — Churanda, Hatlanga, Nawa-Runda, Odoosa, Nambla. . However, police say the intensity of firing is very low and may not escalate.

“Exchange of fire, heavy mortar shelling have affected us, we can not till our lands," the only source of income for most of the inhabitants. " We can’t move outside our villages as we are under the firing range of Pak Rangers,”said Zahoor Abasi of Odoosa village.

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“We use to earn Rs 1,000 to 2,000 daily, now we can’t make even Rs 300 per day, the shops get closed early as most of the people prefer to stay in their homes,” says Hajy Assadullah, proprietor of Ajaz Hotel.“Because of recent border encounters along the LoC, students donot come for classes and attendance has fallen by 50 per cent,”says Javid Ahmad, Librarian of the Uri High School.

The general opinion in the border township is that both the countries should resolve their disputes through negotiations and not by war.“We have bitter experience of two wars and heavy shelling of last year, we are the first causality, last year alone 200 shells landed in our village, causing heavy loss to life and property. We want peace, war is no solution to any problem,”says Abdul Jabbar of Sukad village .

Recently, Army called upon the senior citizens of the township and instructed them to construct bunkers but most of the residents who earn their living by farming find it difficult to do so. A bunker costs more than Rs 5,000. Though the rural development department conducted survey for construction of bunkers,but the said project was scrapped due to lack of funds.“The situation in Uri is well under control and there is nothing to worry about. The residents are leading a normallife,”says Mushtaq Sadiq, SSP Baramulla.