‘What if it explodes?’: In Poonch, Pakistan shelling is over but some fear remains

Unexploded artillery shell at the Nangali Sahib area in Poonch. (Express photo by Aiswarya Raj)

The problem of unexploded munitions fired from across the Line of Control into Poonch has worried many who lived through the shelling, which killed 13 civilians in the district.

“I am worried that if left unattended, it will explode one day when everyone least expects it. When the school reopens, our son will have to go near the shell to go down the mountain… We saw it on May 11 and did not step out for two days. Then we saw that the shell had caught fire. Even yesterday, we saw smoke emanating from the shell, but the authorities have not come so far,” says Rafeeq, who lives in a family of 13, including a six-year-old child, in a house perched high up in the hills.

Another shell had crashed at a spot near their house, around 15 km from the Line of Control, and exploded. “A few years ago, a child from Bandichechian lost both his arms after he played with an unexploded shell,” Rafeeq says, looking at his son riding his bicycle nearby.

Poonch’s Senior Superintendent of Police, Shafqat Hussain, had asked people during a visit to Mendhar sub-division’s Mankote village, not to touch suspicious objects, and to report them to security personnel.

Rafeeq’s neighbour, Rizwan Ahmed, had an unexploded shell land in his family’s kitchen, where it stayed for two days.

Mohammad Azam, a labourer, found unexploded munitions and informed the Army. (Express photo by Aiswarya Raj)

“We were all at our aunt’s house because of constant shelling. The next day, when we returned around 6 am, we saw a hole in the ceiling and the wall. A shell had penetrated and fallen in the kitchen, piercing a gas cylinder. Fortunately, it did not explode. We informed the village head, who in turn called the police. Three policemen and two from the Army poured mud on top of the shell and left it behind for two days. We were asked not to open the kitchen door. Later, they took it to a corner of our plot and defused it in a controlled blast,” Ahmed said.

Shells have also been found in the hilly regions of Poonch by people tending to their corn fields or grazing cattle.

In Shahpur, along the LoC, several shells had fallen in the sparsely populated hills, and some have remained unexploded. Mohammad Azam, a labourer, found unexploded munitions and informed the Army. “They have been going around the area, checking for such shells,” he says. At least four shells had exploded within the one-kilometre stretch between Azam’s home and the road.

“When even trees are not immune to such attacks, what chance do we have? A shell had fallen on the roof of our house where my wife, our five children and I sleep, but it didn’t penetrate the structure,” he says.

The proximity to the LoC made his village particularly dangerous during the shelling, Azam explains. On May 7, a 120-mm artillery shell fell near Azam’s house and it has been lying under a protruding rock ever since.

On Friday, his 10-year-old daughter was grazing their goats a few metres from where the shell lay. “It must have been a damaged shell, but it looks intact,” he says. Another unexploded shell fell around a kilometre away. “This is routine here. Every time there is a shelling, this is bound to happen. Having seen the army defuse it several times, we have also started assisting them,” he adds.

Over the years, Azam has been collecting fins of mortar shells. Placing a smaller fin with the one from a recent shelling, Azam says, “In 2020, the shells were smaller. We spend these days with anxiety and wishing that we had another home far from here.”