Srinagar: While the Army is battling infiltrators in three areas of Kupwara in Jammu and Kashmir, it has thrown open a village for farming after seven decades on the other side of Pir Panjal mountains in Rajouri, near the Line of Control.
The Army handed back the village Mohra Kampla to the locals after demining it for several months.
"Things were looking peaceful in the area and we decided to demine the village. We are using best technology to take out the mines that were there since 1947. This is the second village we have handed back to the population," Colonel Harvinder Singh Billing said.
Villages near the LoC in Rajouri and Poonch have borne the brunt of Indo-Pak hostilities for several decades now. The lands in these areas have become used to shelling every other day from both sides of the border.
The Indian Army has been laying mines over vast chunks of land in these areas to counter any kind infiltration from the other side of the border.
But with Army now deciding on demining these areas, it is the villagers who are celebrating over reclamation of life along with their lands.
"I lost my leg when I was 10 as I accidentally walked over a landmine. I could have easily joined Army like my friends but could not," a villager said.
"I lost my hand upon hitting a mine in my field. We are very poor and live on the monthly pension of Rs 500. Now that our fields are given back, we will be better off by farming," another villager added.
As the Army needs to secure borders, most of the villages close to LoC are heavily and strategically mined to keep the enemy in check. But in the process, it is the local population which became the first casualty. That has started to change now.
Wherever Army feels a village is safe, they will dig out the mines and provide succour to the locals.