Suffocating Kashmir In India-Pakistan Conflict

Blood drips from Nargis Begum바카라�s face as her daughter, Sanam Bashir, 21, holds the 45-year-old Kashmiri woman in her arms. Sanam feels for her pulse and is relieved, but not for long. Nargis succumbs soon after to the injuries caused by shrapnel from a Pakistani mortar shell that exploded near them just as the family stepped out of their Rajarwani home in Jammu & Kashmir바카라�s Uri tehsil on the night of May 8, crushing their hopes of making it safe together to the district town of Baramulla. As artillery fire from across the Line of Control (LoC) pounded the verdant landscape, targeting the homes of villagers, this family lost a mother who had lived in poverty all her life.

Two days later, on the evening of May 10, foreign secretary Vikram Misri said India has agreed to a ceasefire after Pakistan바카라�s 바카라�reach out바카라�. US President Donald Trump claimed New Delhi and Islamabad agreed to a 바카라�full and immediate바카라� ceasefire. The announcement has come as a sigh of relief for people like Sanam바카라�s family who live near the LoC or the international border. 바카라�Our area saw the worst in terms of property damage and the loss of lives due to heavy mortar shelling. The shelling stopped earlier in the morning, but we feared this would resume in the evening. The ceasefire is a relief,바카라� says Habibullah Khan of Mendhar town in Poonch, who hopes it would translate into a more durable and lasting peace.

Recalling May 8, the dreadful night when village after village was emptied out, with residents leaving their homes in a frightened hurry to avoid being killed by the shells, the dead Nargis바카라�s brother-in-law Altaf Hussain Khan says:

바카라�The shelling started at around 8:30 pm, and a shell hit the back side of the vehicle in which Nargis was leaving for Baramulla with her relatives. We didn바카라�t tell Bashir (Nargis바카라�s husband) about her death that night.바카라� Bashir Ahmad Khan, who later saw his wife return home dead, has been in shock since. In a tarpaulin tent, the family gave Nargis바카라�s body the ritual bath before her daughters gave her a last hug. 바카라�She left unhappy even as I held her blood-soaked body in a warm embrace,바카라� says Sanam.

The deaths of Nargis and at least 22 others so far, including a soldier of the Indian Army and an additional district development commissioner in the border town of Poonch, due to mortar shelling by Pakistan바카라�coupled with a continuous barrage of missile and drone strikes on military facilities in the Union Territory바카라�mark a new low in relations between the two countries that became independent nations in August 1947. Sharing a common origin in Partition바카라�the religion-based division of the Indian subcontinent that accompanied the retreat of the British empire, widespread sectarian riots and perhaps the biggest mass migration in history바카라�India and Pakistan have been difficult neighbours.

Over the following decades, Pakistan kept raising the matter of a plebiscite that was famously promised to Kashmiri leaders by India바카라�s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. India kept insisting it couldn바카라�t be done as Pakistan already occupied one-third of J&K. Eventually, in 1989, an armed uprising spread across Kashmir and India accused Pakistan of sponsoring it. Most of the Kashmiri Pandits, a minority in the Valley, left in a massive exodus linked to the rise of allegedly anti-Hindu militancy as well. After the rise of the BJP to power in New Delhi, Article 370, which had granted a semi-autonomous status to J&K, was abrogated in 2019.

While the Centre saw it as the completion of Kashmir바카라�s integration with India and claimed it would contribute to ending terrorism, the April 22 attack by three terrorists on Hindu tourists at Baisaran meadow of South Kashmir바카라�s Pahalgam was a blood-soaked signal that not everyone was happy with the Valley바카라�s touted 바카라�normalcy바카라�

While New Delhi blamed Islamabad, the Pakistan government denied any role in the attack. And what began with troops spreading out from the bustling meadow deep into the forest in their hunt for the alleged Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists, with a cordon that stretched for several days, eventually became a cross-border confrontation between the two countries also involving their air forces.

On May 7, both the central and the J&K governments issued quick media statements about the missile strikes in Pakistan during what was christened 바카라�Operation Sindoor바카라�. 바카라�Terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir바카라�, where 바카라�terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed바카라�, were hit, they claimed.

A government handout said nine sites were targeted in actions that were 바카라�focused, measured and nonescalatory in nature바카라�, and in which the camps of 바카라�Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed were destroyed바카라�.

Although New Delhi initially said no, Pakistani military facilities were targeted and that India demonstrated considerable 바카라�restraint in the selection of targets and method of execution바카라�, on May 10 it claimed that 바카라�key technical and command sites of the Pakistani military were struck, including radar and aviation installations바카라�.

Meanwhile, television channels were abuzz with talk of war and retribution, as jingoism found free play in the din. A battle of fake news also erupted, spreading misinformation on what was happening. And the government was also accused of muzzling news portals known to be critical of its policies

muzzling news portals known to be critical of its policies. The dead Nargis바카라�s daughter Sanam doesn바카라�t talk about the policies leading to war. She recalls the last time she caressed her mother바카라�s face in an ambulance before she brought the body, draped in a white cloth, back to her home바카라�one with plastic sheets covering the windows instead of glass panes. All in tears, she sobbed and screamed, and as the coffin was taken out to the graveyard after the ritual bath in the lawn of her house, she kept pulling at her hair and beating her chest, and remained inconsolable. In clothes smeared with her mother바카라�s blood, Sanam had felt helpless in the hospital, too.

Ashen-faced Bashir, Sanam바카라�s father, sank with grief on the veranda of his home as a coffin was readied for his wife바카라�s burial. His wife was a breadwinner who worked for a few thousand rupees as a cook in a school and had taken a loan for her daughter바카라�s marriage. Shrapnel from the shell that killed Nargis also hit Sanam바카라�s aunt, Hafiza Begum, who was with her in the vehicle when they were trying to flee the raining shells.

Hafiza is among the dozens of the injured in Uri town and its outlying areas, which remain the worst affected. Scores of houses were damaged due to the shelling from behind the hills along the LoC, which is just a 10-15-minute ride away from many of these villages. Shells hitting homes and forcing people to run out for safety was a common sight in this North Kashmir town, and also elsewhere near the LoC as tensions soared.

The impact was felt inside the two capitals of the Union Territory as well. In Srinagar, on the intervening night of May 6-7, flames rose from inside a school building in the sleepy village of Wuyan on the city바카라�s outskirts, where people took photos of the wreckage of an aircraft. For two nights beginning May 8, residents of Jammu had a harrowing time after the foiled missile and drone strikes. They heard loud blasts and saw 바카라�red objects바카라� flit across the sky. 바카라�We saw some red objects flit across the sky in the midst of a total blackout,바카라� says Sheikh Shakeel, a lawyer and resident of Jammu바카라�s Ustad Mohalla.  A Gandhi Nagar resident says he heard several blasts and that 바카라�people all around the city are in utter panic바카라�. Some houses were damaged in the city in utter panic바카라�.

Some houses were damaged in the city. 바카라�Missiles are flying over our houses in Jammu right now,바카라� activist Deepika Pushkar Nath posted on X. 바카라�This is not hearsay; I바카라�m witnessing and recording it myself. The threat is real. Civilian lives are at stake.바카라� The army said military stations in Jammu, Pathankot and Udhampur were targeted by drones and missiles, but 바카라�the threats were swiftly neutralised using kinetic and non-kinetic capabilities in line with established Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)바카라�.

The authorities didn바카라�t confirm claims by Pakistan that five Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft were shot down. An IAF spokesperson said he was not in a position to make any comments about an aircraft that crashed in Srinagar. Over 100 km from the site of the crash in Srinagar, in the Salamabad area of Uri on a hillside, shells fired by Pakistani troops have left houses damaged. Around 18 hours after the shelling, plumes of smoke from burnt remains of the homes filled the air as over 100 houses lay abandoned, while the main market of Uri town stayed shut. In one of the damaged houses, a lone man tried to fix the broken windows and doors.

houses, a lone man tried to fix the broken windows and doors. People living along the international border and the LoC came under fire from heavy mortars and artillery even as a flurry of security meetings over the escalating tensions between India and Pakistan continued. Shells also landed in residential pockets and near security installations near the LoC in Kupwara, Baramulla and Uri areas of Kashmir, and Poonch, Mendhar and Rajouri sectors of Jammu. People stocked up on essential commodities and schools were shut down.

In Srinagar, a heavy rush was witnessed at the petrol pumps, but shops and business establishments remained open and traffic plied normally during the day, while markets closed early in the evening hours. On May 10, several parts of Central Kashmir, particularly in areas close to the Srinagar airport where heavy blasts were heard during the day, were shut down.

Closer to the LoC, life was thrown totally out of gear from May 7 as people chose to stay indoors in some pockets or moved to safer places elsewhere due to the heavy mortar fire. 바카라�I stayed awake through the night due to Pakistani shelling. Our school was shut and we couldn바카라�t even play,바카라� says Irfan Ahmad, 15, in Salamabad, who strolled through the fields to witness the damage to houses with his friend, Toufiq Ahmad, 14.

In Gingal village, which was covered in mist with streams flowing through mountain crevices, shrapnel pockmarked the shutters of a shop, tore apart a window in a house and made a road cave in. A frail woman with a calloused face, Shamshad Begum, 70, sits brooding in her house as neighbouring homes lay abandoned. 바카라�Everyone has left and I am here with my daughter-in-law alone,바카라� she says. A portion of a road leading to the neighbourhood was damaged due to shelling as was a house where Maqbool Ahmad바카라�s kin live. Cracks appeared in one of the walls and a tin sheet now covers a splintered window. 바카라�It had never been this bad,바카라� says Maqbool. 바카라�The shells are landing in the middle of the houses. Almost everyone has abandoned their homes. Only back in the 1990s had we seen such firing from across the border.바카라�

In Gingal, it was mostly elderly people who chose to stay back. On the road connecting the village to Uri, security forces personnel wielding guns were on patrol as a nearby power plant was believed to have been targeted on May 8. Several miles of roads in Uri with spools of barbed wire spread over long boundary walls were filled with people waiting for their relatives to come so they could travel to Baramulla town or the safer upper reaches.

Seema, 20, who carried a child wrapped in a shawl, took shelter below the awning of a shop waiting for her other relatives to join her at Mohra to trek up the hill to their dhoks (thatched houses) where they could escape from the impact of shelling. 바카라�We feel we could be safer in the dhoks in the upper reaches,바카라� says Abdul Rahim Tantray.

the dhoks in the upper reaches,바카라� says Abdul Rahim Tantray. As the mist wrapped the rolling mountains, an eerie silence descended upon Uri and those who were left behind in their homes. 바카라�Shells rained on our locality. Our life was torn apart,바카라� says Tariq Ahmad, 22, a driver now worried more about his safety than the loss of livelihood. As the mist wrapped the rolling mountains, an eerie silence descended upon Uri and those who were left behind in their homes. 바카라�Shells rained on our locality. Our life was torn apart,바카라� says Tariq Ahmad, 22, a driver now worried more about his safety than the loss of livelihood. As the number of dead and injured climbed in the border areas, residents rued lack of assistance by the government.

Border dwellers said little government help came their way. 바카라�The police came here and asked us to not stay in our houses, and to move to safer places,바카라� says Ghulam Mohammad Bhat, 50, as he watches two houses burn near his home in Salamabad. 바카라�We don바카라�t know where the panicked people who abandoned their houses went. No senior official visited here. We don바카라�t know where to go. It was all peaceful here. But things have changed now. It is unsafe to live here. We have no support. There are no bunkers that could save human lives from shelling.바카라�

In Salamabad, mortar shells landed on houses built on the vast farmlands along the tarmac Uri-Salamabad road. On its one side is the compound of the Uri-Muzaffarabad trade centre, which was empty. Mortars also targeted residential areas in Poonch. Local residents said that since the opening of the cross-LoC trade route between India and Pakistan, the situation here had been peaceful until the shelling that began on the intervening night of May 6 and 7

Even as people lamented the failure of the government to reach out to them in Uri, officials in Poonch said the district administration set up several shelter camps in the schools for those willing to relocate. 바카라�The administration assures the public that essential services, including accommodation, food and medical assistance, are available at all these shelter sites. People are encouraged to make use of these facilities if they wish to relocate,바카라� said officials.

According to a government spokesperson, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and chief minister Omar Abdullah also took stock of the situation in the border districts after the shelling. The spokesperson added that Sinha directed the deputy commissioners to shift villagers from 바카라�vulnerable areas to safer locations, and ensure boarding, lodging, food, medicare and transportation바카라�.

바카라�The CM gave directions to immediately release contingency funds of Rs 5 crore to each border district and Rs 2 crore each to other districts so that deputy commissioners are equipped to deal with the exigencies arising and requiring the availability of adequate resources,바카라� the spokesperson said. 바카라�The CM directed that frontier districts be accorded special priority in the disbursement of these funds. Omar Abdullah called for strengthening infrastructure with regard to providing shelters and bunkers for the public in border areas, keeping evacuation plans ready, ensuring sufficient stock of food supplies바카라� He also directed the health department to maintain sufficient stock of essential medical supplies, ensuring availability of doctors, paramedics and keeping blood supply ready in case of any depletion in hospitals, especially in vulnerable areas. He also directed moving ambulances to the border districts witnessing cross-border shelling so that in case of any casualty, the injured are rushed to the hospitals.바카라�

Apni Party leader Raja Manzoor, however, said that the areas close to the LoC lacked bunkers or even proper staff in hospitals to deal with emergencies.

바카라�The areas of Karnah, Keran, Machil and Nowgam in Kupwara lack individual shelter houses and there are only limited community bunkers. The government should provide proper bunkers to avoid losses during mortar shelling by Pakistan,바카라� he said, adding that the authorities should provide proper staff at the hospitals to deal with border skirmishes. 바카라�The hospitals in Kupwara, like the main Sub District Hospital (SDH), lack staff. How can we deal with this situation then?바카라� he asked.

Security was beefed up across Kashmir, with police barring the movement of people to areas near the LoC. In Wuyan, a large number of security forces personnel ringed the road that led to the site of the aircraft crash and prevented public movement with plastic ropes tied to makeshift poles. On the night of May 6, Wuyan residents woke up to what seemed to be the sounds of blasts and gunshots.

Soon, people rushed out of their homes and saw a school in flames. Residents said they called the police and a fire tender reached the area in half an hour. Later, security forces personnel arrived in large numbers and barred the movement of people to the site. 바카라�The school was in flames and our buildings seemed to be shaking. It was scary,바카라� says Suhail Ahmad, a local resident

A large number of security forces personnel remained stationed on the grounds of a local shrine and the gate was locked to prevent the entry of civilians. The outlying areas of the crash site house several security installations, including a training centre and a police colony a few kilometres away, besides a number of factories supplying construction material.

While the borders remained tense in the wake of the heavy shelling, beefed-up security was also seen in Srinagar city as well as in some other districts. Patrolling on the roads was increased, particularly while the civil flights at Srinagar Airport remained suspended in view of the continuous drone and missile strikes. On the night of May 9, blasts were heard in the vicinity of the airport that continued into the next afternoon.

Outside the main gate of the Srinagar headquarters of the army at Badami Bagh, armoured vehicles were seen mounted on top of large trucks, while the police presence remained heavy in the districts of Kupwara and Baramulla, where villages were directly hit due to shelling. LG Sinha also directed the officials to ensure that security was adequate in J&K. 바카라�The entire administration, police, the central armed police forces and the armed forces are working together. We are alert, equipped and fully prepared to respond to any situation,바카라� Sinha said. 바카라�Take necessary steps as per guidelines of the Union Home Minister and to neutralise any potential threat in time,바카라� he directed the officials.

As the sound of heavy blasts resulted in sleepless nights for residents living close to Srinagar airport, a vital defence facility in Kashmir, a government statement also said Pakistan attempted to engage several military targets, including Awantipoora, Srinagar and Jammu as well as in other areas such as Pathankot, Amritsar, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Adampur, Bhatinda, Chandigarh, Nal, Phalodi, Uttarlai and Bhuj in northern and western India using drones and missiles.

바카라�These were neutralised by the Integrated Counter UAS Grid and Air Defence systems. The debris of these attacks is now being recovered from a number of locations that prove the Pakistani attacks바카라� Indian armed forces targeted air defence radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan. The Indian response has been in the same domain with the same intensity as Pakistan. It has been reliably learnt that an air defence system at Lahore has been neutralised,바카라� the statement added.

This article is part of Outlook바카라�s May 22, 2025 issue, 바카라�Is This War?바카라�, covering the tense four-day standoff that brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war. It appeared in print as Alike is Hell, or Paradise, or Heaven.