Stories from Jammu: Face to face with the LOC!

At the LOC, often the ceasefire violations are done by Pakistan for various reasons such as

• To provide cover to infiltration, 
• Attempt to derail the morale of our soldiers. Moverover, BSF couldn't retaliate at every situation as they did not have the free hand till 2014.
• Political gain
• Kashmir issue

Whenever these violations happen, the villagers at the border are affected. The Pakistan usually doesn't target the villagers directly. The firing first starts on the fields and after a while it turns towards the village houses. The locals of Jammu can hear the firing that happens at the borders even upto 5kms away. The mortar firing will be quite powerful such that the locals standing on the ground can feel the vibration hitting their hearts and ears.

Mortar firing at night

The villagers and the Jammu locals near the border are so used to it that the villagers upon hearing the firing immediately vacate their houses and move towards interior parts of Jammu either to the houses of their relatives or to the makeshift camps setup by the administration. These temporary relocation is so commonly occuring phenomenon that each of the village groups know exactly where to relocate. For example a particular village groups know which school building they must go to. And likewise the locals starts arranging food and shelter in such places for the villagers. Sometimes the firing happens overnight or other times, it continues for several days.
 The damages do happen to the houses.  The govt. then provides financial help to mitigate the damages. In 2018, the govt had sanctioned thousands of bunker houses as well as hundreds of community halls. In an article by economic times, dated 23, May 2018, here's how the villagers had expressed their resentment - "We are facing shelling for generations. This is the third generation which has lived under the shadow of death"

  When I landed at the Ramakrishna Mission center, Jammu, knowing that the border is very close to this place, I was quite eager to visit the border. The swami  incharge there, was equally happy to take me there. As soon as we finished our lunch, he arranged for a vehicle and took me to the border along with the two local village youths. He personally showed me and explained each of the places described above. All three of them owing to their simplicity, answered my countless questions that I asked like a child, without getting annoyed.

Border fencing

We also met Jawan guarding the border. He stood motionless at the top of the tower, and his eyes piercing across the fencing. Noticing us coming closer to his tower he signalled to us to park the vehicle at a distance and informed us not to take out the mobile phone. We spent a few minutes there observing the various segments of the border. It comprises of our side of the fencing, then the No-man's land and then fencing at the Pakistan side. We could also see their side of the tower too and their flag. Just a day before i came here, a night long firing was witnessed by one of the adjoining villages

On the way back, we also saw some of the tribal huts with plenty of buffaloes.

One of the youth in our vehicle said these huts are used by the militants to hide at the time of infiltration. They also use such huts to hide the weapons that will eventually reaches the hands of the milltant groups within Jammu and similarly in Kashmir. Unfortunately, the innocent tribals gets poked and disturbed by the militants to hide and our army, in search of these militants, inevitably! From tribals to locals to RKM monks day in and day out, not only witness the firing and buffaloes, but also plenty of snakes.

Snake catching tools used in RKM

The RKM Jammu plays an important role in keeping up the morale of the villagers and help them which as detailed in my previous post. One of the village youth shared an interesting incident that happened with one of the senior monks there. This mission center distributes blankets and garments to the poor and needy villagers. Once this group comprising of the monks and volunteers including this boy, while distributing to the needy, went deeper and far off villages from the mission center. They arrived at the muslims populated village. When they approached a Muslim family a large number of them gathered and first resisted violently assuming that they have come to convert. The senior Swami, with an unperturbed, tranquil mind and motherly affection, explained to that muslim men asking them to follow their religion and that the RKM accepts all religions as true and therefore have no intention of any kind of conversation. And added that they have come to do seva treating you as a human being in need rather than based on any religion. After the distribution, while this group were returning back, this boy who was following the swamis overheard one of the muslims saying, "Insaniyat ko dekha hun, magar aisa kabi nahi !". Meaning, "I have seen humanity, but have never seen, of this quality!".

photo credit: Defence Images Exercise Lions Thunder  via (license)