Fear grips area as locals shift to safer places
Jammu, Aug 07: An elderly man was killed after he was seriously injured in the heavy exchange of firing between India and Pakistani armies in Mendhar area of Poonch district of Jammu region, officials said.
They said intense shelling was going on in the Mendhar sector since morning and in the evening, a 60 year-old Muhammad Sidiq was hit by splinters and seriously wounded. “He was taken to nearby medical facility, but he died on the way,” officials told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO).
Defence sources said that Paksitan army resorted to intense shelling of small arms and firing with the automatic weapons to target forward posts and residential areas. “An elderly man was badly hit and he later succumbed,” they said.
Locals of Mendhar area of Poonch told KNO that fear has gripped entire area due to heavy exchange of firing on the both sides. “We have locked ourselves in our homes and also locked our livestock in the sheds. We aren’t able to venture out due to the intensify of shelling from both sides,” a group of residents said, adding that many of them have abandoned their homes and ran for safer places along with children and cattle.
This year so far, 1785 ceasefire violations have taken place, as per the official data available with the KNO and majority of them have taken place in Rajouri, Poonch, R S Pura, areas of Jammu and Karnah, Keran, Machil, Tandghar, Gurez, Uri in north Kashmir’s Kupwara, Baramulla and Bandipora districts—(KNO)
