‘Border residents in Bandipora district say after constructing a few bunkers, process left mid-way, whenever shelling intensifies, Admin asks us to vacate villages, Have spent nights in army camps as well’
Sajid Raina
Srinagar, June 18 : Amid steep rise in Ceasefire Violations in Kashmir, locals living close to the LoC in northern districts of the Valley demanding construction of community bunkers on fast track basis to survive intense shelling from across the Line of Control.
The border residents rued lackadaisical approach of all the previous regimes towards constructing the community bunkers stating that only a few bunkers were set up and the process was later left mid-way.
Talking to news agency, the residents of forward areas of Gurez in northern belt of Bandipora that include Tulail, Chrowan and Bagtore alleged that all the previous regimes including the Governor administration failed build community bunkers for people who are vulnerable to border shelling.
“The work on some community bunkers was started but the process was left mid-way leaving people living close to the LoC in a deep shock. Many people have already shifted from their native villages and moved to safe areas that include towns etc,” a group of Tulail residents said.
They alleged that despite repeatedly informing the authorities about the need for constructing the community bunkers, all requests fell on deaf ears. “People are gradually migrating from their original villages as staying there is inviting death in view of the frequent cross LoC shelling,” they said.
According to locals, many people have already built small bunkers in their homes as the area Gurez and Tulail remained tense since 2019, following the abrogation of article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.
“Many people have constructed small bunkers in their houses of their own. Poor people couldn’t afford to build bunkers and are vulnerable to getting killed due to cross LoC shelling,” Abdul Hameed, a local resident of Bagtoor, a border village near LoC in Gurez, told news agency. “Its high time, that the government must chip in and help poor people construct bunkers so that they take refuge in same when there is intense shelling.”
Many residents said that whenever the relationship between India and Pakistan sours, the only response from the J&K administration is “they ask us to vacate the villages.”
“In the past two years, we left our village at least 15 times. Last time we vacated our village post roll back of article 370,” said Abdul Suliman, another border resident. “All of us went to our relatives’ houses. Some of us stayed in army camps. How does the government expect us to survive during the times of war?”
Another major issue for these ill-fated border residents is poor mobile communication set up.
“The only mode of communication available for the people of Gurez was provided by a single transceiver tower of (BSNL) in Dawar that ran a few landline telephones. Our phones get hardly connected. Most of the times our phones show no signal,” said Abdul Hameed, a resident of Gurez.
A senior government official in Bandipora administration, however, said that 50 community bunkers have been constructed so far and ten are ready to use. “The remaining are being upgraded gradually,” he said. Repeated calls made to Sub District Magistrate (SDM), Gurez Mudasir Ahamad did not fructify—(KNO)
