Had left everything behind to save lives: Gurez residents

Bandipora,  May 10: The LoC in Gurez, which had remained calm despite being one of the most volatile areas, had heated up, with sleep-deprived locals taking shelter in underground bunkers as many more left for safer areas.

Both India and Pakistan on Saturday announced a "complete ceasefire.” Locals  that shelling occurred in centrally located Dawar and in Kanzalwan in the Bagtore sector, close to the LoC on Saturday.  Mukhtar Ahmad Lone, a former BDC of the block Bagtore, said, “We were in bunkers as heavy firing was heard near the LoC.”

He claimed around “four to five” shells also landed in Korkbal village, further towards Bandipora. Lone expressed astonishment as Korkbalwas relatively considered safe and that a “large number of people” from various villages of Bagtore had left homes to take shelter there — but the area lacks bunkers.

One local in Dawar, Aijaz Ahmad, said on Saturday that  “loud explosions” were heard, indicating cross-LoC shelling. “More people are now fleeing out of the valley,” he said.

On Friday night too, locals in Dawar shared hearing loud explosions, forcing them to rush into underground bunkers. “We were not sure what it was, but more people have now started to leave Gurez,” Abdul Raheem Lone, a former Panchayat Raj Representative (PRI) local head in Dawar, said. A local, however, said, “These were shells and landed away from the population in forest areas.” Tarbal villagers, extremely close to the LoC in the same Bagtore sector, shared that they had been living in bunkers for three days in fear.

“We are poor villagers and want the government to relocate us,” Javid Ahmad Ahanger, a villager said.

He said their lives and the lives of their livestock were in danger, adding, “Shelling was on all night." “I have now left,” Raheem added, as the situation turned dangerous. Raheem said, like many residents, he was also reluctant to leave as the majority of the “poor people” in Gurez survive by rearing cattle and sheep.

Notably, Gurez residents produce potatoes and various types of lentils, stocking them for winter, as the valley gets disconnected for months during heavy snowfall. “Where will those people go whose sole livelihood depends on this,” Lone shared.

“Education has been hit, our agriculture season has been ruined,” he added, lamenting that the “poor” were more affected by the shelling. He said the summer months were the season to work towards getting stocked on supplies through agriculture and arranging livelihoods to spend the winter in comfort — but now “we have been deprived of it. One noticeable thing was that the elderly or family heads had stayed back to take care of the animals and houses, while women, youth and children were taking shelter in safer places.

“We have left our livestock and everything else behind,” Nasir shared, adding that his father had stayed back while more than “fifteen members” of his family had gotten out of Gurez.

A class 7 student, Rubeena Nazir Lone, 17, from Kilshay, Gurez, said her six siblings and mother had shifted to government accommodation, while her father had stayed back. “We have livestock at our home,” Rubeena said as she took lunch with her mother and siblings, one sibling still sulking over milk. Rubeena said, they could get little to nothing to take with them, as "everything else is left back home."

MLA Gurez, Nazir Gurezi, also visited the accommodation, one of almost over a dosen in Bandipora on Saturday to take stock of the facilities being provided to those displaced. Gurez was “calm”, he said, but admitted that from Friday night, “shelling has been happening there.”

He added that the “majority of the population” in Bagtore, Dawar and Tulail had left or migrated and were taking shelter at relatives’ homes outside the valley or in owned accommodations.

“Those who had nowhere to stay are being accommodated by the government,” he said. With Cease fire announcement, things are likely to stabilise here too.