Pak’s renewed gunfire triggers repeated migration

“I don’t understand what wrong we people had done to them (Pakistanis) that they keep on firing at us,” she says.

It was during the wee hours of the January 3 that Pakistanis opened fire targeting villages like Jogwan, Kulian, Ghagriyal, Panjtool, Sainth and Milan di Khui falling along the Line of Control (LoC) in Chhamb sector. Some structures were destroyed spreading panic in the area. Amidst sporadic shelling, the parents with prayers on their lips crawled along with their children for safety to the adjoining areas.

“Earlier, we used to blame either God or Pakistanis for our fate. But, now we have realised that it is not they but our own country India that is responsible for all this. Had they not given Chhamb area to them, today we would not have been forced to migrate from our homelands again and again,” rues Bishan Dass of village Kullian, who has to migrate for the third time in the past six months.

Most of the border migrants were critical of the defensive policy adopted by India. “I don’t understand under which international pressures they are succumbing while Pakistanis do what they feel like. Earlier, they intruded into Kargil and now recently they hijacked Indian plane. When they can do all these things without any fear, why can’t India take preventive measures to defend its motherland,” asks Ram Saroop, another migrant from village Sainth, staying at Domana.

After a lull of one and half month, the border migrants putting up at various make shift camps under pathetic conditions had decided to return to their native place. Hardly had they settled down before the blazing guns snatched their peace of mind again forcing them to leave all comforts of their homes they have been lurching for in camps where they were putting following the Pakisatni shelling last year in June.

“I was preparing for the morning when first bang of shell rocked our house. On hearing the voice my suckling baby started weeping and without wasting any more time I and my husband ran for safety,” recalls Pushpa Bau, a border migrant from village Kullian. Her elbows were bruised while crawling from her house to the adjacent village, as shelling did not stop even for a while.

“Every time I used to feel that the shell will land on us. But I was praying to God to somehow save my children, as they have yet to see the world,” said another mother from border.

More than 200 families, which have migrated to the safer places, are pennyless. Shelling have once again dashed their hopes of survival. This time the shelling has started during sowing of wheat.

When some of the villagers returned to their homes despite the persuasion of other border migrants at camps in Muthi and Domana, they had nothing to live in. They had to mortgage their goods and jewellery to start their life afresh and out of this money some of them had purchased seeds for this season.

“We did not get the peace we were looking for and have lost all that we had been left with,” said another border migrant, ruing their decision to return.