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    In the line of fire: Anxiety of war feels more real in the villages along the border

    Synopsis

    Fear still rules the line of fire. For those living near it, the current hostilities are Déjà vu.

    Watch: Anxiety of war along India-Pak border
    Tarsem Singh was convinced that India-Pakistan skirmishes were going the 1971 way. On Wednesday afternoon, as news broke that Pakistani planes had entered the Indian air space and were chased away by Indian Air Force’s MiG-21 Bisons, the 63-year-old farmer had many a story to tell.

    “It was deja-vu,” he says.

    During the 1971 war, his family ignored the initial military buildup but one day the shelling from across the border began pounding their backyard. Singh, a teenager then, helped his parents pack their bags and run away to a relative’s house, some 30 km away.

    jk1Agencies


    He fears, he knows, he is still in the line of fire. “Our house is just 1.5 km from the International Border. We don’t have any option but to leave for a safer place if the situation worsens now,” says Singh, a resident of Punjab’s Dera Baba Nanak, which is across the border from Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan. The border point grabbed headlines in November when India and Pakistan signed a deal to build a visa-less corridor for pilgrims. Kartarpur was a symbol of peace between the two South Asian neighbours.

    jk2Agencies
    Tarsem Singh, 63, Farmer & electrical shop owner: “My house is 1.5 km from the border. I have to leave for a safer place if the situation worsens. It reminds me of the 1971 war when we moved to our relatives’ place 30 km away”


    Within three months, that moment of optimism has given way to aerial bombings, dogfights and concerns on whether the two nuclear powers will escalate the confrontation.

    The Kartarpur corridor project is still on, but the military movement on the ground has increased since Tuesday, when India conducted predawn aerial raids on Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror camps in Balakot, deep inside Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The very next day, the Border Security Force personnel, who man the International Border, were constantly cautioning the pilgrims not to be overenthusiastic as they gazed at the Kartarpur Gurdwara through a pair of fixed binoculars. Located 4 km inside Pakistan’s Narowal district, it was built on the site where Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikh religion, died in 1539.

    jk3Agencies
    Amrit Kaur, 30, Homemaker: “I’ve heard that Pakistani planes entered India. As we live less than 5 km from the border, I won’t deny we are tensed”


    On Wednesday noon, ET Magazine saw on the other side of the border not just the Pakistan Rangers but also four earth-moving machines. On Pakistan’s side, about 50% of the 4-km-long road that would link the Kartarpur Gurdwara is complete, according to reports published in Pakistan, while on the Indian side, the land is yet to be acquired for constructing a 3.6-km-long link road connecting the border with National Highway 354. The land has been identified.

    tldrAgencies


    Even as road construction was going on that day, at about 9.45 am, a fleet of Pakistan’s fighter planes, reportedly comprising F-16s, JF-17s and Mirages, entered Indian air space and unsuccessfully targeted military establishments in Rajouri in Jammu and Kashmir. These were intercepted by IAF’s Sukhoi-30s, Mirage 2000s and MiG-21 Bisons. While Pakistan’s fighter planes were chased and one of its F-16s was shot down in the process, India lost a MiG-21 Bison in the same dogfight. Its pilot, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who got himself ejected, was captured by the Pakistan Army.

    jk4Agencies
    Banking on bunkers

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    Varthaman was released on Friday night. Just hours after he walked into India through the Attari-Wagah border, massive shelling and firing began in Poonch sector of J&K, killing one woman and two children. According to reports, Pakistan, in its overnight shelling, had used Howitzer 105 mm and mortar bombs and targeted civilian areas.

    The local administration of Dera Baba Nanak is ready for any eventuality. The office of the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) has prepared an evacuation plan for shifting villagers living close to the border, if necessary. It can be put into action as soon as an order comes from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

    jk6Agencies


    SDM Gursimran Singh Dhillon explains: “In view of the situation across the border, we have identified 11 villages of Dera Baba Nanak and another 15 in Kalanaur — the two sub-divisions under me – for evacuation whenever we receive an order.

    Also, all emergency services, including additional medical facilities, are put on a stand-by mode.” The official added that if the MHA orders an evacuation of all villages in a 10-km belt, as was instructed after the surgical strike of September 2016, it would be a mammoth exercise involving as many as 75 villages under Dhillon’s jurisdiction.

    There are six border districts in Punjab — Ferozepur, Tarn Taran, Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Pathankot and Fazilka — and at the time of writing this report, all are on a high alert.

    jk5Agencies


    In 2016, a relief camp was set up on the campus of a higher secondary school in Dera Pathana, about 12 km from Dera Baba Nanak. But not more than 300 people agreed to be relocated. Despite massive risks, most villagers living near the border refused to abandon their homes, saying they needed to look after their farms and animals. Even today, many residents are concerned about the situation, but most of them do not want to move to a camp even if Pakistan resorts to massive firing and shelling on the border.

    “My father Pritam Singh did not leave his home even at the height of the 1971 war when shells and bombs were falling all over the place. I too won’t leave my home, come what may. How can you stay in a camp, leaving behind all your belongings?” asks Nirmal Singh, 40, a sweetshop owner.

    Amrit Kaur, 30, too says her family won’t move in case of an escalation. But she concedes she is scared. “These are tense moments. I have heard that Pakistani planes have entered India and we live less than 5 km from the border.”

    Border trouble
    Punjab is not as sensitive as sectors in Jammu and Kashmir — Akhnoor, Krishna Ghati, Nowshera, Laam, Mendhar, Poonch — all of which have witnessed massive firing from Pakistan after February 26. The authorities have closed down all schools that fall within 5 km of LoC. Of the 3,323 km India-Pakistan border, Punjab shares 553 km, Gujarat 508 km, Rajasthan 1,037 km, and J&K 1,225 km. 2,290 km is undisputed International Border, manned by BSF, while the rest is Line of Control (LoC), with no fencing, and controlled by the Indian Army.

    The trouble in the border, triggered by firing and shelling by both sides, has become common in recent years, putting a question mark on the 2003 agreement with Pakistan on ceasefire along the LoC.

    k;Agencies
    Nirmal Singh, 40, Sweetshop owner: “My father did not leave his home during the 1971 war. I too won’t leave my home. How can you stay in a camp, leaving behind all your belongings?”


    Between 2004 and 2006, there were no incidents of ceasefire violations, but then intermittent firing began. In 2018, J&K recorded 2,140 ceasefire violations, the highest in the last 15 years.

    The harsh reality is that even during peacetime, people on the border are continuously under threat.

    Last year, the MHA approved the construction of 14,460 bunkers — both community and individual types — in border villages, at an estimated cost of Rs 416 crore. Most of the bunkers — underground buildings where people can live during a war or conflict — are still under construction. J&K’s Rajouri will get the lion’s share of funding for 4,918 bunkers. The other districts where bunkers are being built are Samba, Jammu, Kathua and Poonch.

    Will the return of Wing Commander Varthaman lead to de-escalation? Former vice-chief of IAF Air Marshal (retd) Pranab Kumar Barbora says: “Pakistan in its desire to demonstrate to the world that they are not incompetent made some failed attempts to target our military establishments. As we don’t have any terror camps in India, their targets have to be military, civilians or industries. The situation is therefore on an escalation ladder.”

    If that happens, how will it affect the villagers near the border? After all, aerial battles are not sustainable in the longer term, and ground forces will have to make decisive moves to dominate the situation. If the situation de-escalates, there’s still no guarantee that Pakistan would stop shelling and firing on the border.

    “People in many border areas are used to daily firing by small arms and artillery,” says Ajai Sahni, executive director of New Delhi-based Institute of Conflict Management. “The big question is if one tactical strike in a terror camp in Pakistan will yield any results. We have to be strategic. Otherwise, air skirmishes will be the new normal like firing in borders. And we will achieve nothing.”

    War or no war, villagers living near the border will continue to bear the brunt of India-Pakistan face-off.


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    ( Originally published on Mar 02, 2019 )
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