Jammu: Thirteen-year-old Shivpaul was playing with his younger brother Krishan Lal Sharma when a Pakistani mortar shell exploded inside their house in Samba sector of Jammu and Kashmir.
Recuperating at the Government Medical College (GMC) hospital here Shivpaul asks only one question – about the well being of his brother. Ten-year-old Krishan Lal Sharma, however, was not as fortunate as his elder sibling. He died on the spot. Their mother Champa was being treated at a local hospital.
In the GMC hospital emergency ward, close to where Shivpaul was recovering, 21-year-old Pooja, wife of an Army jawan, and her two-year-old son too were battling splinter injuries. They were preparing to flee their home for safety when a shell tore through the roof and exploded in their bed room in the early hours, she said. Her daughter too was injured in the blast, Pooja added.
Eleven seriously injured patients were brought to the GMC hospital since this morning from different sectors as heavy shelling by Pakistani Rangers along the International Border in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts entered the ninth day. Five persons including the 10-year-old Sharma were killed in the shelling Wednesday, raising the death toll in the ongoing skirmishes to twelve including two BSF jawans and an eight-month-old boy.
The state has witnessed a spurt in Pakistani shelling and firing along the IB and the Line of Control (LoC). Over 700 such incidents were reported this year, which have left more than 44 people, including 18 security personnel, dead and scores injured. In another special ward, 50-year-old Santosh Kumari, resident of Londi village of Hiranagar sector of Kathua district, was mourning the loss of her husband.
“It was around 5.30 am when a shell landed at our house and exploded with a big bang, critically injuring Devi, her husband Rampaul Sharma and two others besides killing several bovines. We shifted them to a local hospital and after first aid they were brought here.,” Ashok Sharma, younger brother of the deceased, said.
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