DEOLI (J-K), Oct 7 � The spell of terror unleashed by the recent ceasefire violations by Pakistan along the border in Jammu and Kashmir has triggered an exodus in the frontier areas of the state as thousands flee their homes to escape the constant firing which has so far left six persons dead and several others injured, reports PTI.
The blistering night-long mortar attacks and the rattle of heavy guns have sent villagers scurrying with fear and they are piling onto buses, tractor-trolleys and bullock carts in order to move to safety.
Six persons have been killed and 56 others injured in the shelling and firing by Pakistani troops from across the Line of Control (LoC) and International Border (IB) in the Jammu and Poonch districts in a total of 19 ceasefire violations in the first week of October this year.
Over 5,000 border dwellers have fled their homes to take shelter with either their relatives or at Army camps.
With only some utensils, clothes and other necessary items bundled into their bullock cart as they fled their mudhouse in the Mahasha Kote hamlet, Gursharan�s family of five mirrored the urgency of hundreds of others anxious to get out of harm�s way.
�We were sitting ducks for Pakistani troops as they repeatedly shelled our village over the last two days... We are fortunate that we escaped. Only a few shells landed close to our house,� said Gursharan�s wife, Savita Devi.
Gursharan, who is a small farmer in the border belt, feels it is better to leave for some time than to die. �We do not know how much time it will take to stop this border shelling,� he said.
It was a spectacle of serpentine queues, buses bursting with passengers and tractor trolleys and bullock carts loaded with people as residents in various border villages like Mahasha Kote, Chingla Kaku-De-Kothay, Joura Farm, etc., headed to safety. Fear was writ large on the faces of the people, particularly women and children, as they left their dwellings.
Blood-stained beds, rooftops blown off by mortar shells and windows and walls sprayed with bullets bore mute testimony to the devastation which the ceasefire violations by Pakistan have caused in these hamlets.
