Shell-Shocked and Sleepless: What It Means to Live at the LoC

When the shells came raining down on Churunda, the last village at the Line of Control (LoC), Hafeeza Begum, 30, rushed with her two children to the damp bunker, a dark concrete structure with small boarded-up windows. She stepped out only after the shelling from across the LoC border stopped. With the guns silent, she바카라�s back to her chores­바카라�waving a stick at the cattle under a harsh sun, as homebound children from the village trudge uphill from school, their backpacks bouncing.

As the guns fell silent, life edged back. A school stirred and a mosque got busy once again. In Churunda, labourers fixed solar lights, kids returned to class and groups of men stooped to weed their maize fields. Recalling the hard time, she had faced when the shells pounded the hillside village, a dismal-looking Hafeeza said: 바카라�We stayed mostly in the bunker, moving out when the shelling stopped, to eat food or feed the cows. When the area was being shelled, I didn바카라�t graze the cows on the village pastures. I fed them hay.바카라�

Scars of The Past

School teacher Gulnaz Neer, working at Government Boys Primary School Churunda, recalled a similarly bleak time in 2019, when mortar shelling from across the LOC affected several areas. 바카라�After the recent tensions along the border and LoC, for several days the school remained closed; it is only now that full class work has begun,바카라� she said.

Others in Churunda shared similar fears; stepping out, even to reach bunkers, felt like a gamble. Lal Hassan Kohli, 36, said the mortar fire was so intense, they couldn바카라�t even reach the bunker safely. 바카라�It was raining shells all around. Most of the people chose not to leave their homes for fear of being hit by a shell,바카라� said Kohli, who바카라�s now helping out fellow villagers erect a lighting pole for the mosque.When the sound of mortar fire resonated across Churunda, people mostly stayed indoors and the whole hillside village remained deserted during the cross-LoC firing by Indian and Pakistani troops.

In Churunda and along the LoC, fear resurged as mortar shelling recalled past trauma. Naseer Ahmad Khan, injured in 2019, said they sought shelter in flimsy, toilet-less bunkers and the wounded received only Rs 5,000 in government aid. 바카라�We were trying to hide within the house when a shell landed outside our house in 2019 and I received shrapnel in my leg and was bedridden for several months.  Due to the injuries, I dropped out of school and am unable to do any work that requires lifting heavy weight.바카라� Injuries, he said, had left his brother disabled.

Along the LoC, life바카라�s slowly crawling back. Fields are tilled, maize sown, schools reopened; with attendance catching up. Life has found its rhythm with villagers renewing their briefly abandoned construction activity or hauling essentials back home. At Thajal바카라�s middle school, kids in bright uniforms sit on the lawn. The place is just stirring back to life after days of silence, ruptured by thunderous shelling. 바카라�There are some 215 students who study here. But not all have turned up; around 30 per cent of the students remain absent,바카라�바카라� said a teacher.

Mortar fire along the LoC revived fears of past India-Pakistan clashes, damaging homes and lives. Villagers now dread renewed hostilities and fresh gunfire in the border areas. Mohd Maqbool Khan of Chowkibal said tensions between India and Pakistan bring harrowing times for local residents. 바카라�Whether it was during the Kargil War, the 2001 Parliament attack or the 2019 surgical strikes, life has been difficult here. Several houses in Rangwara and Redi were damaged after the shelling in 2019 by Pakistani troops.바카라�

In Bandi, along the Srinagar바카라�Uri highway, the aftermath of shelling was grim. Mortars had torn through homes, blowing out windows, charring furniture and splintering roofs. Five siblings바카라� families sat amid the wreckage, silent and shaken. Abdul Rashid Shiekh, 55, a former municipal sweeper, observed that while the area had seen shelling before, this time the damage was far worse, with mortars landing squarely in residential quarters rather than distant hills.

바카라�We are the first to bear the brunt of these tensions. The area has been shelled in the past as well during the 2019 surgical strikes, but the damage has been heavy this time,바카라� said Rashid. Shards of glass carpeted the floor as mortar fire ripped through his home. On May 10, clutching his grandchildren, he huddled under a verandah. A blast shattered their world. The rooftop blown off, windows smashed and walls cracked deep. When they returned, the house was no longer a home, just wreckage.

바카라�We stayed hungry on the day of shelling and for several days, when we could snatch some moments during the pause in shelling, we took only a few morsels of food. Both the days and nights were bleak for us,바카라� said Rashid. 바카라�The smoke was so heavy that I still get a cough. My house is so weak now that a slight wind or one more explosion will turn it into rubble.바카라�

Uri: The Impact of War

Uri, perched perilously close to the LoC, has borne the most brunt of repeated cross-border fire. Along with Machil, Keran, Tanghdar and Chowkibal in North Kashmir, it remains among the hardest hit. The Army has accused Pakistan of unprovoked shelling after the April 22 Pahalgam attack that killed 26, including a Kashmiri civilian바카라�an allegation Pakistan denies. From 2011 to 2014, at least 14 ceasefire violations struck Uri, hammering villages like Churunda and Tulawari. LoC ridges lie just two to three km from homes here. Brief migrations to safer ground have been grim rituals observed by the region바카라�s residents. After the 2019 Pulwama attack, Uri reeled again with shells damaging homes, injuring civilians and pushing fear deeper into this already battle-weary belt. 바카라�The situation has also remained volatile here, but this time shelling was more intense,바카라� said Rashid, adding that the Pakistani troops resorted to heavy shelling after the surgical strikes in 2019.

Rashid바카라�s sister-in-law, Shaheena Hamid, 40, whose house was also damaged, remains so terrified that even a slight knock on the door makes her shudder. 바카라�Our houses have been damaged and there is a fear of fresh firing that leaves us devastated. None have reached out to us, no assistance has come our way. We have not received any compensation,바카라� said Shaheena. She said that the family faces a hard time in the harsh weather and has no means to repair their house. 바카라�My husband바카라�s kidney is damaged. He works on a meagre salary,바카라� she said, lamenting the constant hardship each time fresh skirmishes erupt.

Rashid바카라�s daughter, Rubeena Begum, 30, said that after the heavy shelling, her son is now afraid, that he skipped school for several days. 바카라�I went with my son to Srinagar to stay with his aunt, but when we came back after some sort of normalcy returned to the place, I was heartbroken to come across the condition of my father. My son is in ninth class. He has remained so fearful that he refused to go to school for days,바카라� said Rubeena.

At another battered home, shattered windows and a torn-up roof bore witness to the recent round of shelling. Farhan Shiekh, 15, hasn바카라�t returned to school after his books burnt in the blast. A room, once his sister바카라�s refuge, now stands ruined, walls cracked, the floor gouged open. Splinters of glass and wood remain scattered like reminders of the chaos. 바카라�My sister and my sister-in-law have gone to Bandipora after the shelling. They are staying at my sister-in-law바카라�s maternal home. In the shelling, we have lost everything, our hearth and home too,바카라� said distraught Farhan.

Rukshana Begum, 35, fled with her children and relatives to a college-turned-shelter in Baramulla as shells rained down. Days later, they returned to find their home battered. The walls were gashed and the eerie silence was broken only by the crunch of debris underfoot. 바카라�It is unbearable. Our lives have been upended due to the shelling,바카라� said Rukshana.

With no government help in sight, local youths stepped in. Social media influencer Farhan Lone raised funds for 40 families, including namesake Farhan바카라�s. He posted videos of shattered homes, prompting followers to chip in through crowd-funding and support those impacted by the shelling. 바카라�I started posting videos and also appeals for help for the affected families and people came forward to donate money for the affected families,바카라� said Farhan.

Life ground to a halt in Uri바카라�s Tulawari, Thajwal and Saidpora villages as fierce LoC gunfire erupted, sparked by India바카라�s May 6-7 militant camp strikes, swiftly met with Pakistan바카라�s retaliatory attacks on military posts.

In Tulawari, Imran Rashid and over 40 relatives huddled tightly in two small underground bunker rooms amid relentless shelling. Imran stood outside his hillside home, which looked across to Pakistan바카라�s cliffs where houses dotted the opposite mountain. 바카라�The only time we came out was when the firing had stopped,바카라� he said. The bunkers brought some relief, though nearly 70 per cent of the village emptied. Night brought the fiercest shelling, but days were calmer. 바카라�When the night shelling started, we ran to the bunker. All of us thought it could become our refuge for a long time, but we were relieved after India and Pakistan signed a ceasefire deal,바카라� Imran added.

According to National Conference MLA from Karnah, Javid Mirchal, several of the bunkers which were built over 10-12 years back in the areas along the LoC in Kupwara 바카라�are not in proper shape and we have urged the government that they should construct new ones.바카라�

Hasan Mir, 70, who tends cattle, lamented that Tulawari had just three bunkers for 700-800 people; far too few to protect lives. Since the ceasefire, farming has restarted, children have returned to school and shops have reopened, bringing a fragile calm to the village.

Shells landed right outside 47-year-old Abdul Aziz바카라�s house. 바카라�Our windows were broken and one of my relatives was also injured due to the shrapnel from the mortar, but no one has come to assess the damage. Life in the areas close to the LoC has always been difficult; living here comes with a great risk,바카라� said Aziz, a farm labourer, even as Ghulam Mohammad Mir rues that areas close to the LoC lack critical facilities like a health centre. 바카라�We don바카라�t have bunkers in which we could have shifted during shelling to stay safe. There are not adequate health centres to deal with emergencies,바카라� he said.

When the shelling took place during the night, the main market in Uri town remained shut for several days and opened only after the ceasefire. Farooq Ahmad, 52, said he didn바카라�t open his grocery shop for several days during the shelling and was rather more concerned about his safety and that of his other family members.

바카라�What weighed on our minds was how to secure our lives. The sound of shelling was so loud that we thought that everything in Uri would have finished in the next few days,바카라� he said. 바카라�Some of my family members rushed to take shelter in the mosque, some stayed with one of the relatives nearby. We were so terrified that we thought that this was the only way to get saved,바카라� he said.

As the shells rained all across, shops remained closed in the street that faced a camp of security forces in the Gingal area of Uri. After some houses were damaged, most of the village got empty as people migrated to put up in rented places or stay with acquaintances or even took shelter at the homes of strangers in the areas that were out of the range of shelling of the Pakistani troops.

Suhail Rafiq, 30, said that he and his family stayed at a friend바카라�s house in Baramulla during the shelling in Gingal, returning only after India and Pakistan announced a ceasefire agreement on May 10. 바카라�We should also have bunkers, in which we can move and feel safe, so that our lives are not lost,바카라� said Suhail. Pointing towards a large security forces camp across the road, he recalled how the troops took shelter in their underground bunkers during the shelling.

Mohd Khan,70, said that they stayed with one of their relatives after the mortar shelling started. 바카라�Since people knew that we had left our houses due to the shelling, even strangers lent a helping hand and offered accommodation to the people. 바카라�We moved to the Boniyar area of Baramulla district, which was outside Pakistani shelling range and returned only after some sort of normalcy had returned here,바카라� he said.

Though the guns have fallen silent for now, the shadow of fear continues to linger. For these border villagers, peace is fragile and life바카라�s wounds run deep; perhaps a grim reminder that while firing may cease, the scars of any conflict endure long after.

Ishfaq Naseem is senior special correspondent, Outlook. He is based in Srinagar

This article is part of Outlook Magazine's June 11, 2025 issue, 'Living on the Edge', which explores India바카라�s fragile borderlands and the human cost of conflict. It appeared in print as 'Fire Stops, Fear Remains.'