Neelum Valley limps back to peace times
A man inspects his damaged house following cross-border shelling in Jura village along the Line of Control in Neelum Valley. Photo: AFP
Two weeks after Pakistan and India's most intense military clashes in decades, clearance teams along the border comb through fields for unexploded shells so residents can safely build back from the rubble of their homes.
The military confrontation - involving intense tit-for-tat drone, missile, aerial combat and artillery exchanges - came to an abrupt end after US President Donald Trump announced a surprise ceasefire, which is still holding.
In AJK, 500 buildings were damaged or destroyed - including nearly 50 in the picturesque Neelum Valley, where two people were killed. "There is a possibility that there are unexploded shells still embedded in the ground," said local official Muhammad Kamran, who has been helping clear educational institutions near the border.
Unexploded ordnance dating from conflicts past killed several children in 2021 and 2022 in AJK.
Headmaster Muhammad Zubair follows a mine detector into a classroom of his high school in the valley where a writing on a whiteboard standing in the debris reads "we are brave" in English.
"Although the fighting has stopped, people still hold so much fear and anxiety," he told AFP. "Despite calling them back to school, children are not showing up." Abdul Rasheed, a power department official, said he worked "day and night" to repair power lines damaged by Indian firing.
Over the years, investment in roads has helped to create a modest tourism sector in the Neelum Valley.
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