POONCH: “The four days of Pakistani shelling were like a doomsday for us,” said a middle-aged woman, Amrish Kour, a resident of Poonch town, whose family of four had stayed back and not fled away from the war-like situation like other residents.
Amrish, along with her sister, niece, and brother-in-law, stayed put in Poonch even as the town and border areas came under heavy artillery shelling by Pakistani troops.
“As the Pakistani shelling started on May 7 and shells began raining in Poonch, the residents of the town emptied as all of them fled to safer places for their safety to escape cross-border shelling,” Amirsh told this newspaper.
She said her brother living in Jammu and other relatives also called on them and urged them to leave the area as intense cross-border shelling was taking place.
“I am 50 and I have never seen such shelling in this place before. We too were scared but we decided against leaving the place as we felt no place was safe,” she said.
Amrish said as the shelling started, the family of four moved to the ground floor and during four days of intense shelling, “we remained confined to that floor only. We never went upstairs on any occasion during those four days. It was a hell-like situation with loud blasts with impact regularly. Except our family, there was one around. The markets and town were deserted and it was a war-like situation in real time with blasts of explosions, sirens and ambulance sirens,” she said.
According to Amrish, nobody even knew that the family had stayed back as nobody was around. “Even the officials of the Deputy Commissioner’s office, which is as close to our residence, did not know about presence as none from the administration reached us during four days of intense shelling”.
“As the situation is returning to normal, for us those four days were like doomsday with none around and the four of us left to fend for ourselves with no outside help. During those four days, fear reigned supreme and you did not know what would happen next moment,” she said.
Asked whether she regrets the family staying back, Amrish said, “No, we think we took the correct decision. Maybe we were courageous but after seeing the situation when the shells were landing everywhere and drones flying everywhere, I think we made the correct decision. We pray that nobody sees that kind of situation that we faced during four days. May there be everlasting peace in J&K so that border residents can live a peaceful and normal life,” she said.
