Indians and Pakistanis caught in crossfire plead for peace as death toll rises
Amid pounding artillery fire, Amarjeet Singh rushed to the ground floor of his house, seeking safety from the projectiles overhead. At that moment, a mortar shell fired from Pakistan tore through his home in the border district of Poonch in Indian-administered Kashmir. Splinters from the munition punctured his lungs and the 50 year old later died in hospital, his nephew Atinder Pal Singh told The National. He is among 16 people, including four children, who have been killed since Wednesday in intense fire that has bombarded Indian towns along the Line of Control, the de facto border in Kashmir. The violence began when New Delhi on Wednesday carried out air strikes on Pakistan in retaliation for a gun attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir April 22 that India blamed on Islamabad. 'We ran barefoot to the hospital," said the nephew. "He was talking till his last breath but his lungs were punctured and he died despite two surgeries." Amarjeet Singh's elder brother Surjan, 61, was also wounded in one ear. 'The shelling continued all night,' he said. 'There are cracks on all the walls of my house.' A sense of jubilation has gripped many parts of India after New Delhi carried out the air strikes. Many Indians see the missile strikes on "terror groups" as a befitting reply to the attack on tourists in the Himalayan hill station of Pahalgam. But in border regions, fear and panic has gripped residents. Hundreds have fled their homes on the Indian side while others have hidden in bunkers. A Sikh temple was attacked and a teacher at an Islamic seminary was killed. The Singh family are from Kuma Khan village in Poonch, the worst-hit district in Jammu region, but shelling has also been reported in the Kashmir towns of Rajouri, Uri and Baramulla. Atinder Singh said he had never seen such an intense round of fire and pleaded with the government not to go to war. 'People living in the Indian cities are watching this on TV but we are facing it. My cousin's daughter is in class four and son is in class eight — who will think of them?" he said. "Seventy per cent of Poonch's population have left the town. Not a single shop is open, we needed water bottles but couldn't get them. 'We request that the government stop this war and let us live peacefully. No one in Poonch has slept for the last three days.' Similar sentiments were echoed by Dr Sarfaraz Mir, who lost his 10-year-old twin cousins Urva Fatima and Zain Ali in the violence. 'The mortar hit the roof of their house and splinters hit my cousins – they died on the spot,' Dr Mir told The National. 'What happened in Pahalgam was wrong and India has already avenged the killings, but this must stop now. But what Pakistan is doing is also wrong. War has never been a solution.' India and Pakistan, both nuclear-armed nations, have fought three wars over Kashmir, the last in 1999 which lasted for two months. More than 500 Indian soldiers were killed, while estimates of Pakistani losses range from 400 to about 4,000. There have been regular skirmishes and cross-border fire at the border since but the nations agreed to a ceasefire in 2021, which was broken after April 22 and the attack on tourists. In the Pahalgam ambush, 26 people were killed by armed gunmen in the Himalayan picnic spot in the Kashmir valley. The Resistance Front, an extremist group, claimed responsibility. New Delhi accuses Islamabad of backing militant groups in Kashmir, a charge denied by Pakistan. Anas Hamdani, 31, who lives in Karachi, said he fears an all-out war with mass loss of life. His niece was injured in an explosion outside her college on Thursday in Rawalpindi, a city about 40km from the border that houses Pakistan's military headquarters. The Pakistani military has suggested an Indian drone was involved. 'We are worried," Mr Hamdani told The National. "I was talking to my niece, she is at a hospital in Rawalpindi. She told me that a bomb exploded just 30 minutes ago near her college and that they were running home. 'We have lost a seven-year-old boy in Kashmir. By what number will this be multiplied if this war escalates? It will not be Pakistan or India who win – it will be humanity that loses. We pray that both sides act sensibly and save precious lives.'
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