Surgical strikes: In Jammu, border villages in panic after alert

Villagers living along the border in Jammu are in panic after the state government sounded an alert in over 300 villages near the LoC, asking them to stay ready for evacuation. Of the nearly 300 villages in the five border districts — Kathua, Samba, Jammu, Rajouri and Pooch — 120 fall along the border and the others along the LoC. DCs of all five districts have been asked to put in place a contingency plan for evacuation of people in the event of firing and shelling by Pakistani troops, official sources told The Indian Express, adding that so far, they had not evacuated anyone.

Nearly 30 per cent of people in Bengalad, Galad and Chak Fakira villages in Samba district have shifted to alternate accommodation or relatives homes’, said sarpanch of Bengalad Ram Lal. Residents of these villages said they have been told to spend the night at Chichi Mata temple, far off from the border.

Basharat Ahmed, who lives in along the LoC in the Balakote area of Poonch, said that though people were yet to migrate, there was tension due to news reports. However, there has not been much movement of troops, he added. Even migrant labourers from UP, Bihar and other parts of the country have started receiving calls from family members, asking them to return home. “I got a call from my wife, asking me to return home as she has heard that war can break out between India and Pakistan,’’ said Ram Saran of Bihar.