Residents along the International Border (IB) said today that they were in deep trouble due to heavy shelling and firing by the Rangers for the past two days at a time when paddy crop season was in full swing and maintained that prolonged firing could spell doom for the crops.
The residents in border villages of RS Pura sector, where world famous basmati is produced, feared that they could lose the crop season in case of extended hostilities like the last year when firing had lasted over two months.
The border dwellers, who were hopeful of reaping dividends of the latest peace talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Russia, were left shell-shocked after fresh spurt in ceasefire violations.
“All our hopes have been shattered, the border residents suffer whenever there is a ceasefire violation from across the border,” said Sham Lal, a resident of R S Pura.
The mainstay profession of majority people in this frontier sector on the IB is farming and occurrence of a ceasefire violation at a time when they were transplanting paddy crop has put them in a fix.
“Our sustenance depends on farming and it is the season of transplanting paddy plants but now we are afraid to venture into our fields, as we don’t know when we would become a target of Pakistani fire,” said Prem Singh, a resident of Abdullian village of R S Pura sector.
“You can clearly see the damage caused by the Pakistani mortar shells that landed into our courtyard, we are thankful to God that nobody was hurt or killed in our family,” said Puran Chand, while pointing towards the shattered windowpanes of his house.
Several village dwellers in this sector have started migrating to safer locations while many others are planning to migrate at the earliest.
“Some of the villagers have migrated to safer places while others will be moving shortly,” Chand said.
The residents here, meanwhile, have kept their fingers crossed praying that the ceasefire violations do not escalate and they resume normal life.
“Our livelihood depends on farming and this is the peak season, we hope and pray this ceasefire violation ends, so that we can continue with our routine life” said Manjeet Singh, a resident of Abdullian.
Though the villagers appreciated befitting response given to Pakistan by the BSF, they were critical of both Centre as well as State Government for taking no steps for protection of the border migrants.
“We are becoming soft targets for Pakistan. Whenever there is problem, Pakistan starts targeting the civilians. The Centre must take steps to protect us,” the villagers said, regretting that they had to migrate repeatedly from the forward areas for no fault of theirs.
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