Late Friday evening when Pakistan army initiated 'unprovoked' ceasefire violation along the Line of Control in Gulpur sector of Poonch, 58-year-old Mohd Rafiq, resident of village Sial in Khari Karmara area, was waiting for his wife, Rafia Bi, to serve dinner to him.
He was sitting on a chair outside his kitchen and his wife was preparing chapatis. One of his three sons, Mohd Irfan, was also sitting by his side.
After a brief spell of small arms firing from the Pakistani side soon after Indian Army started retaliating the firing, a mortar shell landed right in the middle of their courtyard, close to Mohd Rafiq's chair. All three family members, hit by splinters, died on the spot.
10 years ago, Mohd Rafiq had lost his first wife during intense shelling from across the line of control and had remarried to take care of his three sons.
This time, he himself ran out of luck and died along with his second wife and one son,leaving behind two others.
His cousin Mohd Sadiq told reporters in Poonch, “all three family members were killed before eating dinner”.
He said, “my sister-in law (bhabi) was cooking chapatis (rotis) and my brother was sitting on a chair outside his kitchen when a shell landed in the middle of their courtyard around 9.30 p.m”. They received serious injuries due to impact of the blast and died on the spot.He blamed the authorities for not providing bunkers to poor families in the forward villages.
The last rites of all three family members were performed in their native village on Saturday.
Ignoring guidelines and social distancing norms, hundreds of villagers and close relatives attended the funeral procession and paid tributes to their loved ones.
Sharing his anger, a local villager Mohd Raseed, blamed Pakistan for resorting to 'unprovoked' firing in the area at regular intervals. He said, “It's a war like situation for those people who lose their loved ones in such incidents of firing”.
Another local resident Mohd Abdul said, “Pakistan army is deliberately targeting civilian areas to trigger unrest in the area”. He said, “we have been requesting district authorities to construct bunkers in the forward areas at the earliest so that precious human lives can be saved”.