Shadow Correspondent
Jammu, May 12 :
The ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan has brought a hope for Jammu people that their normal life will be back on track, while recent conflict has left a deep pain and scar for several families whose houses were damaged by shelling.
Recalling that horrific night when one of the shellings impacted his house, Rajendra Kumar, a resident of Rehari in Jammu told ETV Bharat, “I don’t want to remember that day when a blast happened my neighbour’s house which put some impact at my house too following which ceiling of the house has partly damaged and fell down inside the room where my son was sleeping. But by the grace of God he escaped unhurt.”
“When a loud sound occurred, initially we could not understand what was happening. But seeing huge smog in and around, we were scared and ran to another room for safety,” Kumar said.
Expressing similar feelings, Raj Dulari, a senior citizen of the same location, told ETV Bharat, “I have never seen such kind of shelling in residential areas in Jammu. It was such a terrible experience for us when a shell hit a house in front of my place and the entire street was engulfed with dust and smog followed by chaos everywhere. We took shelter in a safe spot.”
“We were very scared and spent 3-4 nights sleepless because no one knew what would happen next.”
Ranjan Gupta, another resident of Rehari, told ETV Bharat, “It is a fact that shelling has damaged several houses in our neighborhood despite that we did not leave our residence. We are supporting each other here. I hope that after the ceasefire, life will be normal here again.”
Neeraj Gupta, whose house was hit during the shelling and he got injured, said, “I don’t know what dropped at my house which made a loud sound and damaged our upper floor of the house and building material scattered everywhere that badly injured me and my daughter. I am thankful to God for saving us from this hit.”
Recalling the situation, Gupta said, “Before we could understand what was going on we were stuck in the middle of fallen debris at that time everyone panicked and was trying to take a safe spot.”
During the visit to various places ETV Bharat found that Rehari is not alone where recent tension had an impact but Noore, RS Pura, and some areas of Jamm are too where this tension has crippled normal business environment. Now people are waiting for a completely normal situation to start work again.
Due to the recent tension situation, a large number of labourers have gone back to their states which is creating a labour crisis issue here.
