RANBIR SINGH PORA: India evacuated thousands of people living near the border with Pakistan on Friday, a day after carrying out “strikes” along the de-facto frontier in disputed Kashmir that have dramatically escalated tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
Authorities in parts of northern India said they were evacuating villages within 10 kilometres (six miles) of the border following Thursday’s raids, which provoked furious charges of “naked aggression” from Pakistan.
In Jammu and Kashmir, police said more than 1,500 had moved away from areas where there was a risk of cross-border shelling, as fears of military escalation mounted.
“Most women and children have fled the village and taken shelter here,” said one woman at a sports hall in Jammu’s Ranbir Singh Pora town. “Our men are staying back to take care of the cattle, but we are scared,” said the woman, who gave her name as Bibi.
Indian sources said on Thursday that commandos had carried out “surgical strikes” several kilometres (miles) inside Pakistan-controlled Kashmir on what they called “terrorist” targets.
The move followed a deadly assault on one of India’s army bases in Kashmir that New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based militants, triggering a public outcry and demands for military action.
Indian and Pakistani troops regularly exchange fire across the disputed border known as the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir, but sending ground troops over the line is rare.
Islamabad has dismissed the talk of surgical strikes across the heavily militarised LoC as an “illusion” and said two of its soldiers had been killed in small arms fire. Images from the northern Indian state of Punjab showed people piling bedding and cooking equipment onto trailers and cramming into crowded buses as security forces stood guard.
Jaswant Kaur said people in his village of Chak Allah Baksh in Punjab had been told to leave their homes. “Of course it’s not a nice feeling to leave your home, crops, cattle and everything else behind,” the 55-year-old told AFP. “Living here means we are always on the edge. We are really distressed.”
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, facing international calls for restraint, told a cabinet meeting that Pakistan’s commitment to peace “must not be construed as weakness”.