Life Between Hope And Havoc: Uri Residents In Kashmir Hit By Shelling Flee Homes
Locals said almost all the habitations were impacted by the shelling. Many have fled on their own to Srinagar, Baramulla and other places.
Published : May 10, 2025 at 8:15 PM IST
|Updated : May 10, 2025 at 8:44 PM IST
Uri: For Muhammad Shafi (55) of Salamabad village, fleeing his home along with his family was not an easy decision. But to be safe, they found no other option as the north Kashmir town witnessed heavy shelling from the Pakistan army after ‘Operation Sindoor’.
“I left my village to save my life. My house and the houses of three of my neighbours were damaged by the shelling for two days,” he told ETV Bharat.
His village falls near the Line of Control (LoC), which is 15 kilometres from Uri town of Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir.
Amid heavy rainfall, Shafi, his wife Akhtar Bi and two minor sons—Rafaqat and Shahid Rustum—were waiting on Friday noon in Uri town under a slab of shops for a government-arranged bus to leave for Baramulla town.
Following ‘Operation Sindoor’, a response by India against Pakistan for harbouring terrorists in the Pahalgam terrorist attack in which 25 tourists and a local Kashmiri were shot dead, Pakistan resorted to intense shelling on the 740-kilometre-long Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.
At least 22 civilians have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir, the majority of them in Poonch district, along the LoC that stretches from Poonch and Rajouri in the Jammu region and Uri, Kupwara, and Gurez in the Kashmir Valley.
“We left all our belongings and cattle at home and fled. We are fleeing to escape the shelling,” Akbar Bi told ETV Bharat.
Her two sons had slung their bags full of books and were anxiously waiting for the bus to flee. The Jammu and Kashmir government has arranged buses for the residents of Uri and is shifting them to a government college in Baramulla town.
Uri has a population of more than 150,000. The town and its dozens of small villages and hamlets are spread on the LoC. Locals said almost all the habitations were impacted by the shelling. Many have fled on their own to Srinagar, Baramulla and other places.
The market in the Uri town was deserted; homes are now turned into ghost houses, and fear lurks among those who have stayed put amid the threat of shelling.
“Some people are staying in their houses, as they have nowhere to go. I have no money to rent a place in Baramulla or any other place. I will stay in my home,” said Abdul Razaq, a septuagenarian from Uri town, who has witnessed shelling and uneasy peace all along his life on the LoC.
Ghulam Nabi of Silikote, a hamlet located on the LoC, has left his home along with his seven family members after his village was pounded with shelling for two days by the Pakistan Army.
From his village, which lies across the LoC fencing, Nabi fled to a temporary shelter at Government College in Uri town. But here, too, they were not safe.
“For two days, we took shelter in the Government Degree College Uri, but the shelling hit near the college on Thursday night. Now we have no option but to flee to Baramulla,” Nabi told ETV Bharat.
Asif, a young man from Garkote, which is also on the LoC, has now taken shelter in the same college where he would come with a book and uniform to study. Today, his college has become his temporary shelter to escape the intense shelling and save his life. “We live on the LoC, and the range of shells of both the armies ends there, so we are hit from both sides,” Asif told ETV Bharat.
In February 2021, India and Pakistan agreed to respect the ceasefire despite their severely strained relations following the Pulwama attack in February 2019 on a CRPF convoy in which 40 personnel were killed and the repealing of Article 370 on 5 August 2019. Despite a diplomatic thaw between the two neighbours, there was complete peace on the LoC.
The dividends of the ceasefire were visible on the LoC as residents like Asif and thousands of others lived a life of peace and calm. “We had come out of the atmosphere of fear. But we are now in the same fearful situation. We are now homeless. Our life is impacted; we cannot study, our exams get delayed, and our future gets bleak,” he said.
These calls for a ceasefire from residents of Uri, like Asif, Rafaqat and Shahid Rustum, are getting dimmed in the cacophony of war cries and official narratives.
“Those in India who want war with Pakistan should come to live here on the LoC for five minutes and experience its devastation. In a war, both the armed forces and civilians become casualties. War is not a solution to any conflict; only dialogue can resolve issues,” he said.
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