Ten residential houses were partially damaged in heavy cross border shelling in Hiranagar leading to panic among the people living close to the Indo-Pak border in Kathua district.
The firing, according to the villagers, started at 9 pm and continued till 2 am. Chak Changa, Manyari and other three villages within 1 km of the border were worst hit.
“Pakistan fired 82 mm mortar shells in the civilian villages along the border,” said Deputy Commissioner, Kathua, OP Bhagat.
“Ten houses have been damaged partially in the mortar shelling and several cattles have also been hit with the splinters,” said SSP Kathua, Shailndra Mishra. “They have been provided with bunkers in the border villages for the civilian population in case of eviction. However, the situation is peaceful now.”
Sunder Lal, resident of Chak Changa, was watching television and his two daughters were studying when a mortar shell landed on their roof top.
“We escaped narrowly when the mortar exploded on the rooftop making hole into the lanter. One of my daughters fainted due to fear after the huge explosion of the mortar shell. After this, I shifted my family to my brother’s home,” said Sunder Lal while breaking into tears. “I will shift my children out of the village to a safer place. For some days, the firing had stopped even as several other villages were targeted by Pak Rangers.”
The heavy shelling across the border in villages has worried the people though no family has migrated. The police and civil administration teams have visited the Pak firing affected villages to take stock of the situation, said Deputy Commission, Kathua, OP Bhagat.