Arnia (J-K), Jan 24: Guns along the Indo-Pak border have fallen silent but border dwellers are living in the shadow of death as hundreds of live mortar shells fired by Pakistani troops are lying across border villages and farm lands in Jammu region.
Security forces have warned border dwellers not to touch live shells that have landed in border hamlets and agricultural land in Jammu, Samba and Kathua along the International Border (IB) and twin districts of Rajouri and Poonch along the Line of Control (LoC).
As Sukham Chand returned home in his hamlet in Arnia sector, he could not enter his border home as a live mortar bomb shell was lying in his compound. After security forces got information, they came to the rescue of Chand and defused the shell.
Like him, Daljeet Singh of Korotana hamlet is living in fear as several shells have landed in his paddy field creating deep craters. “I can resume agriculture work once all these live shells are recovered and defused safely otherwise it is a death trap for us. We fear to move towards our agricultural land now”, Singh said.
As per the police, many live shells have been found in villages and farm lands. “We have identified 30 live mortar shells in various border villages and agricultural land along the LoC in R S Pura and Arnia sectors today. They have been marked”, Sub- Divisional Police Officer (SDPO), R S Pura, Surinder Chowdhary said.
Out of them, eleven have been found in Arnia sector and 19 in R S Pura sector, the officer said, adding few have been defused. Police have written to the Army to set up a bomb disposal squad and detect and defuse bomb shells.
“We have written to the Army to carry out an operation and detect and defuse mortar bomb shells which are lying in border villages and agricultural lands and can pose a threat to area dwellers once they return home”, Chowdhary said. As most of the people are out of their houses due to threat of border shelling, a full exercise to detect all such shells is still underway. “Once the border people return to their homes, we can gauge how many live shells are spread out in villages and border towns”, he said.
PTI