- 1 year after Operation Sindoor, the border villages in J&K are emerging from the shadow of war
- Line of Control is calm, but the last year's intense artillery shelling still reverberates in minds of people
- While the war ended within four days, for children, memories of war may never fade away
One year after Operation Sindoor, the border villages in Jammu and Kashmir's Uri are emerging from the shadow of war. The Line of Control is calm, but the last year's intense artillery shelling still reverberates in the minds of people.
While people are trying to rebuild their lives and hoping to see the end of hostilities on the border, the four-day war has left a deep impact on the psyche of children.
In an area where children grew up recognising the sound of mortar shells even before lullabies, five-year-old Amira Jan has collected shrapnel from artillery shells that hit her home a year ago.
As Amira shows a box filled with bits of exploded shells that hit her home, the little girl has learned the harsh lessons of life on the borders, even before she learns the class 1 curriculum.
She talks about what happened when bombs hit her home and how she, her siblings and parents rushed to safety amid raining fire along the borders.
The single-story mud-and-stone house still bears the marks of shelling. Shattered windows are covered with polythene sheets, and the nightmare of May 7 overnight shelling is still fresh in the minds of the family of Mohammad Ashraf.
"After shelling, I was crying and couldn't sleep. My mother took me to safety. For the whole night we were hiding," said Amira.
While the war ended within four days, for children like Amira, memories of war may never fade away. One year one, instead of toys, children here play with jagged pieces of metal.
Far from Uri, in Poonch, the shelling also left deep wounds.
Among those killed during Pakistani shelling were three schoolchildren, including two siblings. Religious institutions, including a temple, a gurdwara and a madrasa, were also damaged.
A teacher from the Zia-ul-Uloom madrasa, one of the largest in Poonch, was among those killed.
May 7, 2025, was a day when India drew a new red line and hit deep inside Pakistan and terrorist camps to avenge the killing of innocent people in Pahalgam.
But in border areas, it was one of the toughest days in their lives when many more innocent people were killed, and the scars of the war are too wide and deep.
