Clutching their father’s hand, 12-year-old twins Zain and Zoya tried to escape night-time shelling, part of the deadly crossfire that has erupted between India and Pakistan.
They were fleeing to safety after a loud blast shook their house in the Indian border town of Poonch. But they had barely stepped outside when another explosion tore through the street, killing them both.
“They came [into the world] together and they died together,” their uncle, Adil Pathan, told The Independent. “One of them took their last breaths in my arms.”
Their father, Ramees Khan, was injured and remains in a stable condition at a hospital.
Poonch was one of the areas worst hit when Pakistan launched artillery fire in retaliation for India’s missile strikes on Pakistan and Pakistan-administered territories. India says it was targeting terrorist camps following a militant attack last month in the Himalayan tourist haven of Pahalgam in Kashmir in which 26 civilians were killed.
The town lies some 30km from the Line of Control – the 740km-long de facto border between India and Pakistan – and is surrounded by mountains on three sides.
A Sikh temple, an Islamic school, and dozens of houses have been damaged by Pakistani fire in Poonch since India’s missile strikes, The Independent has learnt.
“We do not want war. If the Indian government wants war, then it should be a full-fledged war. It is us who are paying with our blood for these hostilities. Our kids have died but it should not happen to other parents,” said Mr Pathan.
Poonch, a district where many Kashmiris had settled to escape hostilities in villages closer to the border, is no stranger to sporadic breakouts of fire from both sides.
Sajid Bukhari, a 28-year-old resident, said he had not seen a Pakistani attack of this scale in the area in his entire life.
“People ran with what they could and how they could. People were screaming, children were crying and everyone was frightened as we all ran for our lives,” he said.
No one, he said, ever expected Pakistan to fire so deep into the Indian side and strike civilians.
“At 1.30am, we began hearing the loud firing and the windows of our home started shaking. At that time, we did not know the gravity of the situation or that India had attacked Pakistan. We knew India would take military action but we did not know when, and when it happened, we were caught off guard. Soon we realised it was a full-blown attack and not just small firing from the hills of Pakistan,” Mr Bukhari said.
“Eventually, the shelling became intense and began reaching the centre of the town, and I saw houses being struck and people dying in front of me,” he added.
Mr Bukhari said those who had a car drove, and those who had no option just walked under the rumbling open skies for 20 to 50km, fearing a strike at any time.
“The roads were packed with people trying to leave. It was a traffic snarl, and there was real fear that vehicles could be hit – some actually were. It felt like a war zone. My house is in the main town near the market and our home is more exposed to the mountains, so we moved to a neighbour’s house overnight. By morning, all our family members had to leave,” he said.
Mobeen Khan, a 38-year-old lawyer, said there was no warning of firing or evacuation orders from the authorities, even as the first strikes killed people in the town.
“We put our lives at risk and left the town at the crack of dawn with no information from anywhere of what was happening and where it was safe,” he said.
“There was no support from the government, no warning from the government. Jets were hovering over us and the walls of our house were shaking.
Mr Khan said his child asked: “Papa, what is happening? Why are there noises and why are people screaming?” “This could scar him for his entire life and these horrific scenes will stick with us forever,” he added
The whole family was awake in fear as firing continued, Mr Khan said. It was the moment when some splinters fell on the terrace of their home that he and his wife packed their bags with what they could and escaped with their two children, four and seven years old, as the day broke at 7am.
“The first explosion happened during the night, just 50 metres from my home, and the government did not evacuate anyone. It was horrible. Poonch is really in bad shape,” he said.
Relentless fire has continued in Kupwara district, Uri, Sunderbani and Naushera sectors in Rajouri, Akhnoor, and Tangdhar.
In Uri’s Salamabad – a ghost town after residents fled their homes – Talib Hussian said his house was bombed and he is left with nothing.
“We didn’t know where they came from, it was a terrifying moment,” he said.
“We couldn’t recognise each other; I couldn’t recognise my own son, and he couldn’t recognise me. My house and all my belongings have been destroyed. The only thing I have left is what I’m wearing right now.
“I have no food, no blankets, nothing is left. We’re now at the mercy of God, nothing remains. We constantly fear more shelling. We are scared.”
Muhammad Sayed, a student in Salamabad, said: “I am a student here but I never witnessed such heavy firing. It was scary and horrible.”
India called its strikes inside Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir Operation Sindoor, a symbolic name referring to the vermilion powder worn in the hair parting by married Hindu women. The operation was to avenge the Indian men who lost their lives in the Pahalgam attack, which also left a local pony handler and a Nepali tourist dead.
India’s foreign ministry said that 16 civilians were killed and 59 wounded on Wednesday during exchanges of fire across the border. An Indian soldier was also killed by shelling, according to the Indian army. India’s foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, accused Pakistan of targeting the Sikh community in Poonch and said that three people from the community died when a gurdwara in the district was hit by shelling from Pakistan.
Pakistan said at least 31 civilians, including children, died in India’s missile strikes. The country’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, vowed to retaliate, raising fears that the two nuclear-armed countries could be headed toward another all-out conflict. Leaders from both nations face mounting public pressure to show strength and seek revenge, and the heated rhetoric and competing claims could be a response to that pressure.
India fired Israeli-made Harop drones at Pakistan on Thursday, wounding four soldiers. Pakistani army spokesperson Lieutenant General Ahmad Sharif said his forces shot down 25 of them. A civilian was killed and another wounded when debris from a downed drone fell in Sindh province.
The relationship between the neighbouring countries has been shaped by conflict and mutual suspicion, most notably in their dispute over Kashmir. They have fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan region, which is split between them and claimed by both in its entirety.
Flights remained suspended at over two dozen airports across northern and western regions in India, according to travel advisories by multiple airlines.
In Poonch, Mr Bukhari said he is happy that India is avenging the deaths of innocent victims of the terror strike – but the justice for the widows of Pahalgam has also come at a cost for the women of his town.
“They were important, but were they more important than the people in Poonch and Uri?”
