1971 war was not remotely as terrifying as 6-odd hours on Thursday: Poonch locals

JAMMU: Poonch didn’t sleep a wink past midnight. In the distance, the ominous thunder of relentless Pakistani bombardment from across the LoC seemed to portend a danger that even 1971 didn’t pose.Around 2am Thursday, when the first of the fireballs coursing through the night sky hit home, district Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee president Narinder Singh’s mind raced back to when he was eight.“The 1971 War wasn’t remotely as terrifying as what we experienced for six-odd hours till Thursday morning. Back then, my family and thousands of others remained in Poonch through the war without fear of coming in the line of fire. This is different, which is why most residents have fled to safer places,” he said.At the first light of dawn, businessman Aijaz Kazmi, in his late 50s, picked up his car keys to leave for Jammu with his family. “After a shell exploded in our neighbourhood, I prayed the entire night for our safety,” he said.As Kazmi drove through Poonch, the place looked different from the town he had grown up in. Almost all 17 wards bore the scars of shelling, which intermittently continued till around 11am.“Shri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara, Geeta Bhavan and a madrassa housed within a mosque were damaged. Many shops and other commercial buildings were struck by mortar fire,”he said.The 16 casualties in Pakistani shelling across sectors in J&K included Amarjeet Singh, who would play the tabla during kirtan at Shri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara, and Amreek Singh, a ragi (kirtan singer) at another Sikh temple in Poonch. A maulvi, Maulana Mohammad Iqbal (46), died when a shell hit the Zia-ulUloom madrassa.Poonch opened temporary shelters for those displaced by overnight shelling, but they remained mostly empty until Thursday evening. Vishal Sharma of Poonch town noted, “There’s an exodus; no one knows what will happen next.”Jahangir Ali, whose parents survived the 1965 and 1971 wars, said, “Even during past border clashes, we didn’t fear for our safety. Now, we’re directly attacked.”Kazmi said that Poonch needs bunkers due to the heightened LoC tensions and potential prolonged conflict.