The last two months saw a spike in ceasefire violations, exchange of fire from light to heavy mortar shelling between Indian and Pakistani soldiers on the international border and line of control. According to the Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Defence, Govt of India, 192 violations took place this year until January 29, killing eight civilians and injuring 58.
The skirmishes at the LoC augment the sufferings of the people residing near the border areas. The bullet-scarred walls of houses that bear cracks and shrapnel marks, the dead livestock, testify to the extent to which things can get murkier along the border between India and Pakistan.
For most of the residents of the battle-worn villages on the frontier, shelling has become a way of life, which has no time table.
As part of a small study to document the experiences of women living along Line of Control (LoC) and International Border (IB), a series of small group meetings and interactions were held from 2015 to 2017, with women living in the zero line villages in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh Province of the State.
These women have been bearing the brunt of the post partition hostilities between the two warring armies, for no fault of theirs.
Most of the villages have borne the impact given their typical topography and as such bear witness to the hostility between the two nuclear powers- Pakistan and India.
The series of interactions held along the LoC and International Border, revealed, life of people in these villages is surrounded with uncertainties due to the frequent exchange of fire between the two rival armies and cross border shelling, which has scared the life of people; the worse impacted being women; as the burden and responsibility of household lies on her shoulders.
This situation has led to displacement and disruption in their daily routine, especially with regard to the education of their children, which has dampened their spirits.
Following are some personal accounts of victims, those that survived but with disabilities. The disabilities from the wounds inflicted are not just physical but emotional. The physical scars of the wounds are visible in the form of landmine victims, bullet and splinter shell injuries, while the emotional scars are visible in the form of stress of living in constant fear/uncertainty and the pain of separation, as members of divided families.
Twelve year old Tanish Sharma frequently laments for taking birth in Banglar village, Samba district, in Jammu Province, as he has faced many traumatizing situations while running for cover, whenever firing, along International Border IB, takes place.
“He mocks me, whenever firing occurs on borders and questions me as to why my parents got me married at this troubled place,” said Tanish’s mother, Manisha. “Now whenever we have to run for cover, I too wonder about the possibility of a life where we didn’t need to worry about the sirens, mortar shells and broken homes.”.
Manisha, is comparatively economically sound so the family has decided to shift from this village to safer area soon. However, the fate of the other five hundred families in the village, reeling under abject poverty, who have no plans to shift, as such, are forced by circumstances to bear the brunt of border hostilities.
The women living in Banglar shared that during the ceasefire violations; women fasten their children with rope on their shoulders and run for safety several kilometres in the dark of night, while the men carry eatables and other necessary items.
“We have to be ready all the time. We don’t know when we will have to run for life as firing can occurs anytime,”
Abdalliah village is a grief stricken village alongside IB in R S Pora sector in Jammu region. It has been bearing the brunt of hostility between two countries ever since the partition took place in 1947. Most of the women have lost their husbands, many others, their sons or both. Hardly any woman has given birth to a child in the village
70 year old Shobadi is one of the victims of the border hostility, her husband Krishan Lal got critically injured as Pakistan Rangers fired upon the Indian posts.
“As the firing started, we were running for our lives. But he was unfortunately caught, and received several bullets,” recalls Shobadi, amidst tears trickling down her face.
Shobadi tried to overcome odds, while working in fields and grazing cattle to raise her son Subhash, but she never knew tragedy will strike her again, as unfortunately her son stepped over the landmine in the field while attending to the call of nature and died.
Shobadi’s life is socially and economically full of miseries and trauma. She is fighting hard to live her life in absence of any stable economic support while the two tragedies are continuously haunting her.
This old woman is not alone sharing her grief and sorrow, other women equally narrate the pain they are going through on the ‘Line of Fire,’ “We keep our pregnant daughters away from this village, at relatives place owing to perpetual security threat and uncertainty of situation. As a result of this no woman has given birth in this village. Is this the kind of life anyone would like to live?”
In Ladakh, Zainab Bi, lives in Hunderman Brok, along the Line of Control in Kargil. Zainab Bi’s simple wish of meeting her family members across the border might never materialize, for this is a grief that binds the families on both sides of the border. Zainab Bi is a member of divided family.
“My sister died some years ago after a brief illness but I could not attend her funeral. The months following her funeral, I used to cry every day cursing these borders,” says Zainabi while gazing out at the Indian border post on the other mountain which is visible through her window, a monotonous, silent view of unending barbed wires.
Hunderman Brok occupies an important place in the region’s history as it was once known as the resting ground for travelers on the historic Silk route between Kargil and Skardu, the village’s current claim to fame is less spectacular: it houses the last forward post from the J&K side on Line of Control between Pakistan and India in Kargil.
Over the past fifty years, India and Pakistan have been playing musical chairs with this village: Indian Army wrested it from Pakistan in 1965, only to ‘return’ it to them post the Tashkent Agreement in 1966. Later in 1971 it was re-captured and retained by Indian Army. No wonder then, that residents of this village talk of a time when things were less complicated. “We used to live peacefully with our relatives who lived in Brolmo village, just four kms from our village (now on the other side). But the 1971 war between India and Pakistan changed everything for us and brought miseries in our life by separating our blood relatives,” recollects Zainab Bi as tears roll down her cheeks.
Zahara Bi, her story: she got separated from her brothers and sisters during 1971 war. All of them are presently in Gilgit area of Pakistan Administered Kashmir. “After we were separated, I have never seen their faces nor could I visit them because I don’t have enough money to make a passport and spend on expenses of travel. The only thing which I can do is pray. Every day I pray to Allah to open up the Kargil – Skardu Route,” says Zahrabi.
Skardu, on the Pakistan side, is just 173 kms, or a seven-hour ride, from Kargil on the Indian Side. The Kargil-Skardu route, often called as silk route, was once significant for intra-regional trade on which the local economy depended. The all-weather road witnessed the movement of people and goods from Tibet to Central Asia through Kargil, Leh, Skardu and Gilgit for centuries.
Although this side of the border has been relatively peaceful, the people of Hunderman live in the fear of another war breaking out due to the frequent cross border ceasefire violations in the Jammu division.
The villages have their own emergency evacuation drill: “We have identified a big cave which we used in 1999 war. That cave saved us all from getting killed. In case a war breaks out again, we all will go and hide in the cave,” says Mohammad Ali, a resident of the village.
(Ezabir Ali is a Commonwealth Professional and Harvard Alumna. She is a women’s rights activist and coordinator of EHSAAS, a policy group. She has been documenting impact of conflict on the lives of women living near borders in the State).