Villagers brave it out on border
From M.L. Kak
Tribune News Service

MALJODA (Akhnoor), Oct 16 — BSF Head Constable Mannu Singh, hailing from Itawa in Uttar Pradesh, had purchased some new garments and toys for his children. He was due to leave the BSF post on October 15 to go to his village after his leave application had been sanctioned. He wanted to be with members of his family on Divali.

But Pakistani Rangers shattered Mannu Singh’s dreams. When Mannu Singh was busy packing in the sprawling BSF barrack, Pak bullets pierced the walls. He was not hit. He ordered his "boys" to be alert and silence the Pak guns. He came back to the barrack and resumed packing. A bullet passed through the open door and hit his temple.

He lay in a pool of blood, dead. The lid of the attachecase remained open. Many of the garments he had purchased were soaked in blood. The sleepy village, just 300 m from the Pak border, had not yet come out of the mourning over the killing of one 38-year-old Kamla Devi on October 14 in Pak firing when the death of the BSF Head Constable rattled their morale.

Not a soul can be seen moving in the fields. Dogs keep barking. Cows and goats have been tethered behind the houses. Men, women and children remain indoors due to the heavy Pak firing. Scythes and shovels can be seen in the fields indicating that the farmers had left the implements to escape to safety the moment Pak Rangers started pounding Maljoda and three other villages with bullets.

Kartar Chand, husband of Kamla Devi, is speechless. Last year he had lost his son and two days back his wife who was hit by a bullet while she was busy in the field. The 15-year-old son of Kartar Chand, Jia Lal, is in tears. His sobs have not stopped even hours after his mother was cremated.

As in Maljoda so in several other villages on this side of the international border, people, including the BSF jawans, do not sleep on beds (charpais). They sleep on the ground to prevent Pak bullets from hitting them. One BSF jawan says, "if we sleep on beds, we are at an elevation and can be easily targeted."

During the past one year, more than 18 civilians have been killed in Pak firing and 30 others wounded in Akhnoor and R.S. Pura sectors on this side of the border. More than 30,000 people have been affected as they are not able to carry out farming in the sprawling agricultural fields. And farmers, who used to feed the state, are now banking on free ration from the government.

They have not received any cash assistance for purchasing fodder for their cattle. Many villagers have shifted to safer places after their sons failed to eke out a livelihood and people in the neighbouring areas refused to marry their girls in the villages situated close to the Pak border.

One BSF jawan says, "The Pak Rangers' attitude is highly unpredictable. It is peace and tranquility on the border for days and weeks. And all of a sudden the villages experience a rain of bullets."

Another soldier says, the Pak Rangers have violated the written and verbal agreements reached with "our sector commanders".

One thing heartening is the way people in the border belts right from Akhnoor to Kathua have learnt to live under constant threat from the Pakistani troops. There is panic in the villages, but people are not prepared to desert the villages. They are disheartened because of their inability to grow crops, with the result they have very meagre resources to live on.

The intermittent, but heavy firing, from across the border has affected the development works. Villagers interviewed are gloomy over the way work in educational institutions, health centres and other government offices has been affected as teachers, doctors, para-medical staff play truant out of fear of the Pak gunners.

The villagers want the government to develop some permanent defence mechanism so that they can live in peace and work freely in their farms.

The BSF has increased the number of border posts. The BSF jawans patrol the border belts round the clock and during the night naka parties keep a vigil on the borders to prevent infiltration and arms smuggling.

In recent days, the BSF had foiled five major attempts by Pak agencies to push in large groups of militants into the Jammu sector. As many as 20 Pak intruders were killed in recent days and large quantities of arms and ammunition seized.