M A I N   N E W S

BORDER MIGRANTS — I
A Tribune special
Pallanwala — stalked only by ghosts
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service

Pallanwala (along the LAC), June 29
The war at Kargil is over but its sad memory still breathes in every corner of the Pallanwala sector, along the Line of Actual Control, which lies abandoned for over two years now. Ever since the first enemy shelling took place in the area on August 31, 1999, the eight odd villages which comprise the sector, have not seen any human presence except, of course, that of the deployed Indian Army personnel and jawans.

Pitched all along the sensitive Line of Actual Control (LAC), Pallanwala lives to tell the horrid tale of desperation and death. The reminisces of war can be seen on the walls of houses and even on the shutters of shops in the form of mortar shell marks. About seven civilians were killed in this sector when the war at Kargil broke out two years back. No wonder then that about 5,000 people inhabiting the eight border villages of Pallanwala, Panchtut, Chapryal, Kachryal, Shela Wali, Shamvan, Palatan and Channi, left their homes, never to return.

The Tribune visited the desolate sector along the LAC to find out if any blood still ran through the veins of Pallanwala. As the Indian Army jeep whizzed past the empty streets of Pallanwala, Panchtut, Chapryal and Kachryal (all located in extreme vicinity of the LAC), one could feel the reigning pain and one could also understand what it meant to be living in villages which experience heavy shelling any time a war breaks out. The Pallanwala sector is witnessing doom for the third time — after it witnessed some in the 1965 and then in the 1971 war.

While travelling past, the jeep stopped in front of the only shop that was open in the entire Pallanwala market. Bodh Raj, owner of the shop, has taken a tough stand to stay back in the village of his birth. But for this decision he must pay heavily. “I had gone to live in the Ramnagar border migrant camp, but I came back because my roots kept beckoning me all the time. Now I am running this shop which yields me no profit at all. It is as good as closed. There are no people in Pallanwala. So how can I expect any sale?” questioned Bodh Raj. The rest of the shops in the area were closed. Each shutter bore a living memory of the war days in the shape of bullet and mortar marks. Houses all across the border villages lay ravaged some sporting thick holes in the walls. These holes were caused on account of the Pakistan shelling in the sector when the war at Kargil had broken out.

For most villagers here, the ceasefire declared by the Prime Minister means absolutely nothing. Kehar Singh, who lives in the displacement camp for border migrants at Devipur, said; “Will the PM come and see if the shelling has actually stopped. Cross firing in this area never stops. How will the people come back? No one wants to die.”

Travelling further along the line, this Correspondent reached Chapryal (a village which lies just 1 km away from the LAC). Acres of agricultural lad in Chapryal and Kachryal are lying barren because there is no one to come and cultivate the land. After a desperate hunt for some people around, The Tribune finally spotted a newly married couple – Bitua and Raj. They had come from the camp at Nai Wala to see if their belongings were safe. From belongings they meant their cattle. Said Bitua: “There is nothing else left. Cattle is the only possession we have now.” The cattle of about 5000 families of Shelawali, Channi and other villages of Pallanwala sector, keep straying around in the absence of any supervision. Agriculture, once the mainstay of economy of these border villages, has no future at all.

Meanwhile, the Army jawans deployed in the area informed The Tribune that for these people cross-firing at the border would never really be over. Said a jawan: “They are psychologically not ready to accept that there is now a ceasefire along the LAC.” The Army keeps encouraging the villagers to come back but to no avail. For all of them, the border area of Pallanwala sector will never be home again.