SRINAGAR, India, Jun 03 (IPS) – Within the war-worn borderlands of Jammu and Kashmir, the silence that adopted the Could 10 ceasefire between India and Pakistan will not be the comforting sort—It’s uneasy.
After per week of heavy cross-border firing that left not less than 16 civilians lifeless and hundreds homeless, the ceasefire brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump introduced a fragile halt to the violence. However for folks dwelling alongside the Line of Management (LoC)—in villages like Uri, Kupwara, Rajouri, and Poonch—the injury goes far past damaged properties.
The official assertion, calling for an “fast and full cessation of hostilities,” might need quieted the weapons, however the psychological and materials scars stay deep and recent. Funeral fires nonetheless burn. Youngsters refuse to sleep. Faculties stay shut. The trauma lingers like smoke within the air.
‘We Buried her Earlier than the Ceasefire’
Twenty-four-year-old Ruqaya Bano from Uri was meant to be married this week. As a substitute, she stood over her mom’s grave, clutching the embroidered dupatta of her bridal costume. Her mom, Haseena Begum, was killed by a mortar shell that landed of their courtyard.
“She was serving to me pack my wedding ceremony garments,” Ruqaya says, her voice skinny. “She smiled that morning and stated, ‘Quickly this home will probably be stuffed with music.’ Hours later, we had been digging her grave.”
4 others died in the identical barrage in Uri, all civilians. Many extra had been wounded—some critically. As the colleges stay shuttered, the younger are left to course of trauma with no help.
For some, phrases have vanished completely.
Eight-year-old Mahir sits on a skinny mattress at a aid camp in Baramulla, his eyes fastened on a clean wall. He hasn’t spoken because the shelling started.
“He watched his cousin, Daniyal, die when a shell landed close to their cowshed,” says Abdul Rasheed, Mahir’s uncle and a farmer from Kupwara. “Now, if a canine barks or a door slams, he hides underneath the mattress.”
His response will not be distinctive. Dozens of youngsters alongside the LoC have reported signs of acute stress: sleeplessness, mutism, bedwetting, and panic assaults. Trauma isn’t just for troopers. In Kashmir, it enters properties with shrapnel.
The violence started within the wake of the April 22 terror assault in Pahalgam that killed 26 folks, together with 13 troopers. In retaliation, the Indian Air Pressure carried out strikes on militant camps throughout the LoC. Pakistan responded with heavy artillery hearth, forcing an exodus from border villages.
In cities like Rajouri and Samba, panic set in rapidly. Households packed into vehicles at midnight. Lengthy queues fashioned outdoors gasoline stations. ATMs had been emptied. Grocery cabinets went naked. Authorities colleges and public buildings became short-term shelters in a single day.
Reduction staff describe chaotic scenes. “There have been moms with infants and nothing to feed them,” stated Aamir Dar, a volunteer from a Srinagar-based aid NGO. “The worry was absolute.”
After two days of frantic diplomacy by Washington, President Trump introduced on Fact Social that India and Pakistan had agreed to halt the preventing. “Statesmanship has prevailed,” he wrote.
Inside hours, the rumble of artillery ceased. Indian fighter jets returned to base. A tense quiet settled alongside the LoC. However for many who had misplaced properties, limbs, or family members, it was too little, too late.
Authorities officers, together with Jammu and Kashmir’s Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, toured the worst-hit districts. Reduction operations started slowly, and criticism mounted over the sluggish response. “We haven’t acquired even tarpaulin sheets,” stated Rahmat Ali from Mendhar. “The assistance will not be matching the necessity.”
Grief Among the many Ruins
In Poonch’s Salotri village, 70-year-old Naseema Khatoon stands earlier than the blackened stays of her two-room house. Her husband died in 2019 throughout an analogous flare-up.
“Now the home is gone,” she says, barefoot on scorched earth. “What number of occasions do we start once more?”
Regardless of their grief, villagers are attempting to assist each other. Younger males kind traces to move down sacks of rice. Medical volunteers have arrange makeshift clinics. College college students from Srinagar have launched on-line campaigns to crowdsource meals and medication. Hope, although faint, endures.
The Evening Worry Took Over Jammu
Even Jammu metropolis, removed from the fast border, was not spared the anxiousness. On the evening of Could 9, alarms blared about an alleged missile menace to the Jammu airport. Panic swept the town. Cell networks briefly collapsed. Households crowded into bunkers.
“It jogged my memory of the Kargil Conflict,” stated Rajesh Mehra, a retired trainer. “We slept in our garments with luggage packed, prepared to go away.”
Although the menace turned out to be a false alarm, public confidence was badly shaken. The Indian Air Pressure flew in emergency provides. Particular trains had been organized for these stranded. Because the mud started to settle, some households returned house—solely to search out them in rubble.
In Tangdhar, a faculty features now underneath a torn military tent. The air smells of diesel and worry. 13-year-old Laiba, a scholar, holds a pencil however stares on the ground. “I wish to be a baby once more,” she murmurs. “Not somebody who remembers bombs.”
The shelling left behind greater than reminiscences. Fields are affected by unexploded ordnance. Homes have cracks from shockwaves. Native hospitals are stretched to the brink.
The military has cordoned off hazard zones. However till the shells are cleared, an off-the-cuff step can imply catastrophe.
Again in Uri, Ruqaya Bano lays a garland on her mom’s grave, freshly dug beside their walnut tree. “She at all times stated peace would return. Ruqaya whispers, “No weapons, no worry. Perhaps that day continues to be far off. However I hope it comes. For everybody.”
She wipes her tears, then picks up a hammer to assist rebuild their shattered house.
The ceasefire, whereas welcome, is merely step one towards lasting peace. In these villages, peace isn’t just the absence of conflict. It’s the presence of dignity, security, and reminiscence. That is the sort of peace during which youngsters can chuckle once more. The place weddings are celebrated, not postponed by gunfire. The place folks sleep with out worry and wake with out sorrow.
A Lengthy Shadow
Kashmir has remained a flashpoint between India and Pakistan since 1947, with each nations claiming it in full. The area has seen not less than three wars and numerous skirmishes. For the reason that begin of the insurgency within the late Eighties, over 100,000 folks have been killed.
In August 2019, the Indian authorities revoked the area’s particular constitutional standing and bifurcated it into two union territories. Since then, Delhi has claimed a return to normalcy, however native voices inform one other story—one among militarized quiet, silenced dissent, and rising worry.
Final October, for the primary time in over 5 years, native municipal elections had been held. It was a step towards restoration, however a small one.
For now, the ceasefire is holding. However just like the mortar scars on the partitions of those villages, the emotional injury stays etched deep. The silence that follows conflict isn’t simply silence—it carries the load of each scream, each loss.
Be aware: Names of survivors have been modified at their request to guard their privateness.
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