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Fear grips Baingalad as bullets, mortars rain
Bullets, destruction force villagers to desert homes
By Firdous Tak
The Kashmir times, Dec 26, 2001
BAIN GALAD (SAMBA), Dec 25: People around the world might be busy in
the Christmas celebrations' and
preparation for the new year, but for the people living at Bain Galad,
about 18 Kms from Samba, it is war time as
the troops on both sides of the border exchanged heavy fire and mortar
shells for the last two days.
Leaving behind every thing they have collected throughout their life,
about 5000 people including women and
children have left their homes in most of the border villages in Samba
sector for safer places as Pakistan Rangers
have now resorted to mortar shelling and heavy machine gun fire
targetting the civilian areas.
This correspondent, who was in the village today, had a close shave
when Pakistan Rangers fired number of
bullets towards the village at about 12:30 PM.
Hardly few yards away from the International Border (IB) the village
was mostly calm, except the frequent
exchange of small arms fire between the BSF and Pakistan Rangers, till
December 13 attack on Indian
Parliament. The villagers here said that soon after the Parliament
attack the intensity of firing suddenly increased.
Deserted houses, damaged structures, bullet marks on almost all the
houses, people leaving the village on
tractors and carts and elderly people discussing the ongoing conflict
under the shadows of brick walls was all
visible, when we visited the village this morning.
Soon after our vehicle stopped at the bus stop of the village, we were
told by some youth of the area who were on
their way to Samba that Pakistan army can open fire at any time and
thus we should take all the precautions
while moving in the area. Earlier to this I had seen a young boy in a
pool of blood in Samba hospital, who was hit
by a mortar shell in an adjoining village.
Making our way behind the bushes to a nearby field and taking shelter
behind the pacca houses we reached the
site where four houses were destroyed due to the mortar shelling, late
last night. It was destruction all over,
speaking about the worst man can do.
I had hardly spent few minutes at the site, when number of bullets
were fired from across the border towards the
village. I was lucky enough to escape as I was immediately driven by
the local residents, accompanying me,
behind a brick wall. Fear of death and destruction quite visible on
their faces, the villagers here told us that this
was first time that they have seen such a situation in the area.
On December 23, three Border Security Force (BSF) jawans were killed
when a routine patrol party was
ambushed by the Pakistan army. The villagers said that since then the
situation on the border worsened leading
to the use of heavy mortar shells from across the border. "Most of the
shells exploded in the civilian areas
causing severe damage to the civilian population", an old villager said.
Although, the central government claimed that the situation on the
border is not so tense and the army has been
deployed as a precautionary measure, for the people living in this
village the situation is worse than a war. "For
us the war has started. We can not imagine more tension and
destruction than this", said Ramesh Kumar
Sharma, a villager who has migrated alongwith his family to Samba.
Another aggrieved villager, Kewal Krishan said that when the Pakistan
troops started targetting the civilian areas
all the inmates of the village including women and children fled
leaving behind their belongings and cattle at
home. "They kept firing mortar shells towards the village throughout
the intervening night of December 23 and 24
and finding themselves trapped between the armies of both sides the
villagers started fleeing the village on foot
early yesterday morning", he said.
Even yesterday afternoon about four shells exploded in the middle of
the village razing four residential structures
of Balwant Singh, Lal Chand, Parsu Ram and Bodh Raj to ground. The
inmates of the houses had already left for
Samba, when the incident took place.
"I came two days back on leave to spend few days with my family but
all of a sudden the village was gripped by
the threat of war and we were forced to leave our house", said Lance
Naik Janak Singh, whose house was also
destroyed in the shelling. He said that he had gone to Samba with his
family members and when he returned he
saw his house in flames. "Our cattle were caught in the fire and were
rescued by some youth of the village", he
added.
For 80 year old Kamal Das the situation is comparatively more tense
than the situation before two wars of 1965
and 1971. "At that time the people of the border villages were told to
vacate their homes well before the war
begun and the government had shifted the people from the villages to
the safer areas." But now, he said,
everything started all of a sudden and "we did not get any time to
collect the things of daily needs from our
homes".
More than 200 people of this village are now camping in Girls Higher
Secondary School, Samba and rest of the
people are either living in the houses of their relatives or on rent.
About 30 persons have been accommodated in
each room of the school where the local residents of the town were
providing them bedding and food.
These migrants alleged that the government has not helped them in any
way till now. "Gareebon Ko Kaun
Puchhta Hai (who cares for poor people)", said an elderly person. The
local youth of Samba have now taken the
initiative and were arranging ration and other items of requirement
for these migrants.
Back at home, the village is not still deserted and at least one
person of each family is still staying to ensure the
safety of their cattle, which is a major source of their livelihood.
"My entire family is in Samba but I cannot leave
as some one has to be here to look after the cattle", said Bashu Ram
(65). When asked how he is managing his
survival amidst the shelling and heavy firing, he says; "The cattle
are our source of livelihood, we neither can take
them with us nor can leave them here without food and water."
These people who have not left the village are now staying inside the
house or somewhere behind the brick wall
to ensure their safety from Pakistani bullets.
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