Normalcy limps back in panic-stricken Poonch

Markets open in Poonch town as normalcy returns. -Excelsior/Ramesh Bali
Markets open in Poonch town as normalcy returns. -Excelsior/Ramesh Bali

Bloodshed, devastation unforgettable, say attack survivors

Sanjeev K Sharma

JAMMU, May 16: Though normalcy is limping back in the Poonch town and soon the business is expected to be as usual, but, the residents including those who had migrated from the town on returning claimed that the memories of May 8, 2025 morning will always remain unforgettable to them as the day had witnessed unprecedented bloodshed and devastation in the border town triggered by the heavy artillery firing and shelling from the other side of the dividing line between India and Pakistan.

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Sources claimed that about 70 per cent of the market in the town has reopened on Friday along with some schools after remaining shut for over a week following heavy firing and shelling from Pakistan side in response to the India hitting and smashing the terrorist training centers deep inside Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) and Pakistan which left many terrorists and their commanders dead and inflicted heavy damages to the infrastructure used by the terrorists.
Also there was no black-out in the town at night barring border areas where people switch off their lights as a precautionary measure.
Residents of Poonch town still remember how they were caught in the continuous ammunition blasts after which many people felt helpless on seeing their loved ones dying in front of their own eyes and others being injured grievously.
A Sikh man from the Poonch town who has retired from the Army informed that the belligerent nation at a few kilometers away had crossed all the limits of wickedness and barbarism in the mountainous border district of Poonch by launching the dreaded attack on the residential areas.
“In the dead of the intervening night of May 7-8, 2025, we all were panicked at the noises of choppers and other planes hovering over the sky while the panic became worse as the dawn broke and the town came under heavy shelling with many shells and mortars landed in residential areas of the town,” Sunil Kumar, 41, who works as a Manager with a company selling cars in the town, said.
“I along with my wife Neeru were staying in our rental house at Shankar Nagar area of the town and we were making all efforts to ensure safety to our three little daughters-Aditi, 10; Hansika, 8 and Himani, 4, as the kids were worried and shocked on hearing the deafening blasts along with the screams and cries echoing from the town,” he maintained adding: “It was unwise to stay there and within few hours most of the town was deserted by the residents and I with my family left for our Rajouri home for safety.”
Surjan Singh, 60, a contractor, who was also injured in the shelling along with his son Ikmanpal Singh, 16, while his close relative Amarjeet Singh was killed in the shelling said, all the people in Poonch town had left the place and those having cattle loaded them in vehicles and left the place.
“Only those having no resource remained there,” he informed.
While leaving the shelling hit town, a child lost his life after splinters from an exploded shell hit him.
Another resident of Poonch town who moved out for safety said, as the shelling on the town progressed no one had any idea about who has died and who survived.
“By 4.30 in the morning (on May 8, 2025), a shell exploded in Forest Department premises killing two persons and by 10 am five persons were reportedly killed and many injured and the worse continued after that,” another Poonch resident claimed.
Prof. Sarfraz Mir, 40, who teaches history at a Government College in Poonch informed that at the time of shelling he was at his residence on SSP residence-Dak Bunglow lane in the town when a shell landed there at a short distance damaging some houses.
“None in the town slept after 2 am and all were busy praying to their Gods for saving their lives,” he further said.
Prof. Mir also said that with the first light of morning he learnt that a shell had exploded near the house of his maternal uncle Rameez Khan critically injuring him and killing his minor twins-son and a daughter.
“It was hue and cry in the town and the local youth rushed to the District Hospital to render help and donate bloods to the needy persons,” he continued.
Jamrodh Singh, who lost his uncle Amrik Singh in the brutal shelling, said no preparatory measure was put in place for safeguarding the civilians in the town in the wake of shelling from other side of the Line of Control.
He rued lack of facilities in District Hospital Poonch to tackle such emergency situations and said that after serving Indian Army his uncle Amrik Singh was serving the community and was a member of Ragi Jatha in the local Gurudwara.
As the Indian side responded boldly to Pakistan guns, some elders in Poonch informed that even in Indo-Pak wars of 1971 and 1965 such heavy shelling was not witnessed.