Shelling hits civilian homes across Poonch and Rajouri, families survive by a stroke of luck
In Rajouri district, on the morning of May 8, Additional District Development Commissioner (ADDC) Raj Kumar Thappa lost his life when a Pakistani shell landed near his official residence in Rajouri town. The splinters pierced into his bedroom while he was sleeping. He sustained multiple injuries and died while being shifted to the hospital. His three staff members, including his personal security officer, who were in a neighbouring room, escaped unharmed. 'It was mere luck that they survived,' said a local resident. Several homes in the area were also damaged.
A few hundred meters from the ADDC's residence, another shell hit a room above a car workshop in the Khoura Industrial area. Migrant labourer Mohammad Shahid and his two-year-old niece Aisha Noor, who were sleeping in the room, were killed in the explosion. The child's parents, however, survived. Her mother was in the kitchen, and her father was in the washroom at the time. 'They used to sleep in the same room but as the attack took place in the morning, his sister-in-law was preparing food for the family in the kitchen and his brother was in the washroom. Had they been in the same room, none would have survived,' said local resident Asif Javed.
The shell left a hole in the room, and another created a crater in the slab of the car workshop below.
In another incident in Khoura, a shell hit the first floor of Parvez Ahmed's house, where he has rented out rooms above his ground-floor shops. 'I had given the rooms on rent. A woman and her child lived there. The woman had shifted to another room to offer morning prayers and she had taken her kid along to the room,' said Parvez. The mother and child survived, as they were not in the room that was struck. 'It was their good luck that they survived. On occasions, you also need luck to be with your side,' he said.
In Pukharni, Laam village, near the Line of Control in Rajouri, Anwar Hussain and his family had left their home about 30 minutes before the shelling began. They, along with other families, moved to the basement of a local hospital. 'Within half an hour of our leaving the place and reaching the basement of the hospital, the shells fired by Pakistan troops fell on our village. About 30-35 shells fell in our village and there were loud explosions. One of the shells landed near our house. The splinters of the shell caused damage to the house. The glaspanes were broken and splinters breached the iron grill and sprayed on the outside and inside walls of the house,' Anwar said. 'Had the family been present in the house, we would have suffered casualties. It was our good luck that we fled from the house in half an hour. It was an instinct decision and it saved our lives,' said Anwar, a retired CRPF jawan.
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