A nearby neighbor said, “We’ve kept mattresses, food supplies, and some valuable belongings in the bunker.”
Following a ceasefire between bitter foes India and Pakistan, families in the villages of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) went back to their own homes while keeping their bunkers stocked and ready.
Before a US-brokered truce was proclaimed on Saturday, four days of fierce fighting between neighbors with nuclear weapons claimed more than 60 lives.
Kashmir, a mountainous Muslim-majority area that is claimed in full by both nations but is split between them, is at the center of the fighting and frequently has the highest death toll.
Families weary of decades of intermittent firing started to head back home — for the time being — on the Pakistani side of the heavily guarded de facto boundary, known as the Line of Control (LoC).
“I don’t trust India at all; I think it will attack again. Building defensive bunkers close to residences is essential for the local population, according to Kala Khan, a resident of Chakothi, which has a view of the Neelum River, which divides the two sides, and from which Indian military installations are visible.
Two bunkers with 20-inch-thick concrete ceilings provided protection for his family of eight during the night and portions of the day.
“Whenever there was Indian shelling, I would take my family into it,” he remarked of the recent events.
“We’ve stored mattresses, flour, rice, other food supplies, and even some valuable belongings in there.”
An administrative administrator in the area claims that in order to shield residents from Indian fire, the government has constructed nearly a third of the more than a thousand bunkers along the Line of Control.
No assurance
India has long faced an insurgency on its side by liberation organizations seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan, and Pakistan and India have fought multiple wars over Kashmir.
Islamabad is accused by New Delhi of supporting the freedom fighters, citing an April attack on tourists that led to the most recent war.
Pakistan declared its innocence and demanded an impartial, independent, and global inquiry.
Some families were reluctant to go back to their homes on the LoC because of the limited shooting that occurred overnight between Saturday and Sunday.
In Chakothi, which is tucked away in the foothills of verdant mountains and encircled by a profusion of walnut trees, half of the 300 stores were closed, and not many people went out on the streets.
“I’ve spent fifty years living on the LoC.” Ceasefires are declared, but the firing resumes a few days later,” Muhammad Munir, a 53-year-old Chakothi government employee, said.
He added, “There’s no guarantee that this latest ceasefire will hold—we’re certain of that.” He claimed that the impoverished are the ones who suffer the most from the constant uncertainty and the search for protection along the LoC.
Kashif Minhas, a 25-year-old Chakothi construction worker, frantically looked for a car to get his wife and three kids out of the fighting area as it started.
“I had to walk several kilometers before finally getting one and moving my family,” he stated to AFP.
“The current truce between India and Pakistan is merely a formality, in my opinion. I still run the possibility of getting fired again, and I’ll relocate my family out again if that occurs.”
There have been no reports of firing since Sunday morning, a senior administrative officer stationed in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Azad Kashmir, where an Indian missile damaged a mosque, killing three people, told AFP.
Hundreds of thousands of evacuated residents in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) have started to cautiously return home, with many voicing similar concerns as those in Pakistan.
For the first time in decades, the four-day fighting reached major cities in both countries, killing nearly all civilians, most of them in Pakistan.
Muhammad Akhlaq, a Chakothi taxi driver, stated that there was “no guarantee of lasting peace” with the ceasefire.
“I have serious doubts about it because the core issue that fuels hostility between the two countries still remains unresolved — and that issue is Kashmir,” stated the 56-year-old.
