SRINAGAR, India, Jun 03 (IPS) – Within the war-worn borderlands of Jammu and Kashmir, the silence that adopted the Could 10 ceasefire between India and Pakistan is just not the comforting variety—It’s uneasy.
After per week of heavy cross-border firing that left not less than 16 civilians lifeless and 1000’s homeless, the ceasefire brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump introduced a fragile halt to the violence. However for individuals residing alongside the Line of Management (LoC)—in villages like Uri, Kupwara, Rajouri, and Poonch—the injury goes far past damaged properties.
The official assertion, calling for an “quick and full cessation of hostilities,” might need quieted the weapons, however the psychological and materials scars stay deep and contemporary. Funeral fires nonetheless burn. Kids refuse to sleep. Faculties stay shut. The trauma lingers like smoke within the air.
‘We Buried her Earlier than the Ceasefire’
Twenty-four-year-old Ruqaya Bano from Uri was meant to be married this week. As a substitute, she stood over her mom’s grave, clutching the embroidered dupatta of her bridal costume. Her mom, Haseena Begum, was killed by a mortar shell that landed of their courtyard.
“She was serving to me pack my wedding ceremony garments,” Ruqaya says, her voice skinny. “She smiled that morning and mentioned, ‘Quickly this home might be filled with music.’ Hours later, we have been digging her grave.”
4 others died in the identical barrage in Uri, all civilians. Many extra have been wounded—some critically. As the colleges stay shuttered, the younger are left to course of trauma with no help.
For some, phrases have vanished fully.
Eight-year-old Mahir sits on a skinny mattress at a aid camp in Baramulla, his eyes mounted on a clean wall. He hasn’t spoken because the shelling started.
“He watched his cousin, Daniyal, die when a shell landed close to their cowshed,” says Abdul Rasheed, Mahir’s uncle and a farmer from Kupwara. “Now, if a canine barks or a door slams, he hides underneath the mattress.”
His response is just not distinctive. Dozens of kids alongside the LoC have reported signs of acute stress: sleeplessness, mutism, bedwetting, and panic assaults. Trauma is not only for troopers. In Kashmir, it enters properties with shrapnel.
The violence started within the wake of the April 22 terror assault in Pahalgam that killed 26 individuals, together with 13 troopers. In retaliation, the Indian Air Drive carried out strikes on militant camps throughout the LoC. Pakistan responded with heavy artillery fireplace, forcing an exodus from border villages.
In cities like Rajouri and Samba, panic set in shortly. Households packed into automobiles in the dark. Lengthy queues fashioned exterior gas stations. ATMs have been emptied. Grocery cabinets went naked. Authorities faculties and public buildings was short-term shelters in a single day.
Aid staff describe chaotic scenes. “There have been moms with infants and nothing to feed them,” mentioned Aamir Dar, a volunteer from a Srinagar-based aid NGO. “The worry was absolute.”
After two days of frantic diplomacy by Washington, President Trump introduced on Reality Social that India and Pakistan had agreed to halt the preventing. “Statesmanship has prevailed,” he wrote.
Inside hours, the rumble of artillery ceased. Indian fighter jets returned to base. A tense quiet settled alongside the LoC. However for individuals who had misplaced properties, limbs, or family members, it was too little, too late.
Authorities officers, together with Jammu and Kashmir’s Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, toured the worst-hit districts. Aid operations started slowly, and criticism mounted over the sluggish response. “We haven’t acquired even tarpaulin sheets,” mentioned Rahmat Ali from Mendhar. “The assistance is just not matching the necessity.”
Grief Among the many Ruins
In Poonch’s Salotri village, 70-year-old Naseema Khatoon stands earlier than the blackened stays of her two-room residence. Her husband died in 2019 throughout an analogous flare-up.
“Now the home is gone,” she says, barefoot on scorched earth. “What number of occasions do we start once more?”
Regardless of their grief, villagers are attempting to assist each other. Younger males type traces to move down sacks of rice. Medical volunteers have arrange makeshift clinics. College college students from Srinagar have launched on-line campaigns to crowdsource meals and drugs. Hope, although faint, endures.
The Evening Worry Took Over Jammu
Even Jammu metropolis, removed from the quick border, was not spared the nervousness. On the evening of Could 9, alarms blared about an alleged missile risk to the Jammu airport. Panic swept town. Cell networks briefly collapsed. Households crowded into bunkers.
“It jogged my memory of the Kargil Warfare,” mentioned Rajesh Mehra, a retired instructor. “We slept in our garments with baggage packed, prepared to depart.”
Although the risk turned out to be a false alarm, public confidence was badly shaken. The Indian Air Drive flew in emergency provides. Particular trains have been organized for these stranded. Because the mud started to settle, some households returned residence—solely to search out them in rubble.
In Tangdhar, a college features now underneath a torn military tent. The air smells of diesel and worry. 13-year-old Laiba, a pupil, holds a pencil however stares on the flooring. “I need to be a toddler once more,” she murmurs. “Not somebody who remembers bombs.”
The shelling left behind greater than reminiscences. Fields are plagued by unexploded ordnance. Homes have cracks from shockwaves. Native hospitals are stretched to the brink.
The military has cordoned off hazard zones. However till the shells are cleared, an informal step can imply catastrophe.
Again in Uri, Ruqaya Bano lays a garland on her mom’s grave, freshly dug beside their walnut tree. “She all the time mentioned peace would return. Ruqaya whispers, “No weapons, no worry. Possibly that day remains to be far off. However I hope it comes. For everybody.”
She wipes her tears, then picks up a hammer to assist rebuild their shattered residence.
The ceasefire, whereas welcome, is merely step one towards lasting peace. In these villages, peace is not only the absence of battle. It’s the presence of dignity, security, and reminiscence. That is the type of peace wherein youngsters can snicker once more. The place weddings are celebrated, not postponed by gunfire. The place individuals sleep with out worry and wake with out sorrow.
A Lengthy Shadow
Kashmir has remained a flashpoint between India and Pakistan since 1947, with each nations claiming it in full. The area has seen not less than three wars and numerous skirmishes. Because the begin of the insurgency within the late Nineteen Eighties, over 100,000 individuals have been killed.
In August 2019, the Indian authorities revoked the area’s particular constitutional standing and bifurcated it into two union territories. Since then, Delhi has claimed a return to normalcy, however native voices inform one other story—certainly one of militarized quiet, silenced dissent, and rising worry.
Final October, for the primary time in over 5 years, native municipal elections have been held. It was a step towards restoration, however a small one.
For now, the ceasefire is holding. However just like the mortar scars on the partitions of those villages, the emotional injury stays etched deep. The silence that follows battle is rarely simply silence—it carries the load of each scream, each loss.
Be aware: Names of survivors have been modified at their request to guard their privateness.
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