living in the direct line of fire on the International border, both Shakuntla Devi and Polli Devi never feared for their lives and went about with their household chores.
On Wednesday morning when they were preparing themselves for the long day ahead while sipping a routine cup of tea, little did they know that their plans for the day were only short-lived. And now the men of the family are left with nothing but bereavement.
Both women were hit by a mortar shell which landed straight away from across the border in their house verandah in village Chilyari of Samba district. All six family members were badly injured in the blast.
Shakuntal Devi (60), hit hard by splinters, died on the spot as she bled profusely. Her daughter-in law Polli Devi received fatal injury on the forehead. One of her eye had completely bulged out when she was rushed to the Samba district hospital, more than 20 kms away from their forward village. She too could not survive the gruesome attack and died later.
Their husbands Buti Ram (65) and Saodagar Mal (40) and two children Kuldeep Kumar and Koushal Kumar were undergoing treatment in the GMC. According to doctors, the conditions of all four were stated to be critical as they had suffered crucial blood loss in transit. The doctors who performed surgeries on Koushal Kumar claimed the boy was lucky that he reached the hospital in time as he had multiple splinter injuries in his upper torso.
Following intense shelling in the area, over 1,500 villagers migrated to safety and took shelter in nearby areas inside Government school buildings and banquet halls. The villagers claimed they ran away to safety without picking any house hold item.
In Akhnoor, displaced border residents reiterated their long-pending demand of allotment of five marlas of plot for the border residents at safer locations so that they can rebuild their houses.
"We cannot afford to run away from our houses every now and then with our children. last month we spent more than one week away from homes when tensions escalated and now our village has been targeted again. We appeal to the Narendra Modi Government to address our issue of providing safe shelters and plots at safer locations where we can rebuild our lives", villagers in Hamirpur Kona of Akhnoor said.