People in Kashmir flee, prepare bunkers amid India-Pakistan escalation

Kashmir is now witnessing large groups of people either fleeing their homes or taking shelter in ill-designed bunkers against the backdrop of recent flare-up of hostilities between India and Pakistan.

In the section of Kashmir that is administered by the Pakistani government, officials said at least 2,000 people had left their homes in Kotli and Jhelum Valley districts near the Line of Control (LoC), which divides the scenic valley between Pakistan and India.

"More people are leaving their homes and moving to safer places," said Umar Azam, a senior official in Kotli.

Authorities have closed all public schools on the Pakistani side. Internet services were cut in some zones near the volatile frontier.

Witnesses said a large number of people, including women and children, loaded with cases and bags, could be seen on roads. Some pulled cattle or carried other animals.

Habib Ullah Awan, a 46-year-old grocery store owner in the nearby village of Chakothi, told AFP that shells were still falling when he left his home with eight members of his family early Wednesday. "My house was not safe because of the shelling, God forbid, nothing will be left if a shell hits my house."

Most people leaving Chakothi went to Muzaffarabad, the main city in Pakistani Kashmir, or to stay with relatives in other villages.  Those with no family to house them went to Hattian Bala camp set up by the local administration.

Mushtaq Ahmed, another Kashmir resident, said he was taking his wife and children to Muzaffarabad. "But I will come back, I can't afford to leave my home and belongings unguarded."

Villagers on the Indian side of the de facto border said they were tired of fleeing their homes under such circumstances.

PressTV-‘Pakistan shoots down Indian warplanes, captures pilots’

Fresh escalations fuel fears of the two nuclear-armed neighbors slipping back into a full-fledged war over disputed Kashmir.

At Kamalkote, on the Indian side, Kashmir residents said they had also faced heavy shelling.

"We spent the night in total horror. Shells did not land in the village, but fighter jets are still flying above us," said a man who gave his name as Tariq. 

India said it was building more than 14,000 bunkers suitable for families living along the de facto frontier. The new shelters are supposed to prevent people from having to flee when the shelling begins.

On Tuesday evening, Pakistan used heavy-caliber weapons to shell 12 to 15 places along the Indian side, a spokesman for the Indian defense forces said. In retaliation, India's army shelled the Pakistani side.

In recent months, there have been frequent exchanges of fire along the actual and de facto borders, but Tuesday’s firing marked a major escalation after India carried out an airstrike on what it said was a training camp run by a militant group in Pakistan. India said it was responding to a car bombing claimed by a member of the group that killed over 40 Indian paramilitary police in Kashmir almost two weeks ago.

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