In the wake of fresh ceasefire violation on late Tuesday evening, the district administration had to rush bulletproof vehicles to evacuate more villagers from the forward villages falling in the direct line of fire.
On Sunday when Deputy Chief Minister Prof Nirmal Singh visited relief camps in Nowshera sector a large number of border residents raised the issue of constructing safe bunkers for them. With folded hands women made passionate appeals before the Deputy Chief Minister in the presence of BJP MlA Ravinder Raina to rescue them.
Despite facing numerous hardships more than 530 families comprising 1,800 border residents were putting up across seven relief camps in Nowshera till late Tuesday evening.
According to Defence PRO in Jammu, “Pakistan Army violated ceasefire agreement around 6.30 pm by initiating indiscriminate firing using 82 mm and 120 mm mortars.
Defence PRO said the Indian Army posts retaliated strongly and effectively. Till the time of filing the report intense shelling in the forward areas of lam and Pukharni was going on.
According to border residents camping in the relief camps it is no longer safe to stay in forward villages falling in the direct line of fire as Pak Army has been deliberately targeting civilian houses.
The border residents alleged despite promising construction of bunkers the State Government has failed to allocate funds for Rajouri district.
Senior most district officers in Rajouri told The Pioneer, "no funds have been allocated for construction of bunkers in Rajouri district so far".
From government servants deployed in the area to local residents and farmers working in the field the common concern remained unattended till date.
The villagers told visiting Deputy Chief Minister, “We have been living in the direct line of fire and have been demanding construction of bunkers but so far the State Government has failed to come to our rescue.”
The local villagers claimed, “When Pakistan Army start targeting our villages we are left with no option but to vacate our houses in emergency. We cannot run away in haste and some time we are stranded due to intense shelling.”
Villagers alleged, “We have been listening for a long time that the Centre had funded a project to construct bunkers in vulnerable areas but so far we have failed to notice any forward movement on ground zero in our villages.”
Even state govt employees posted in forward areas including school teachers told media persons, "in the last five days the school buildings have been made target by the Pak army and we have no other place to hide".
The teachers claimed in case schools were operational the Pak army would have inflicted heavy casualties. The teachers demanded the state/centre govt must prepare a comprehensive disaster management plan to ensure safety and security of border residents.