SIALKOT: The recent spate of shelling by Indian Border Security Force (BSF) on border villages here has forced locals to sleep under the open sky in fields, as civilian population has been targeted in Chaprar, Charwah, Sucheetgarh, Harpal and Bajra Garhi sectors along the Working Boundary in the evening until late at night.

Locals said they were spending sleepless nights in fields in an attempt to stay safe from the mortar shelling.

“We leave our houses in the evening and take our cattle with us, as the BSF starts shelling after dusk that continues intermittently all night,” said 60-year-old farmer Muhammad Ismail of Beeni Sulehriyaan village in Charwah sector.

Another villager, Haji Muhammad Aslam, 56, of Bajra Garhi village in Harpal sector said that they returned home after dawn only to cook food, and found most of the houses damaged by shelling.

Sakeena Bibi, 67, of Joiyaan village said: “We use our tractor trolleys and donkeys for transportation between the fields and our houses.”

The villagers affected or displaced by weeklong shelling have been living in either fields or other safer places in Sialkot and its surrounding areas, while there has been no let up in their miseries. They have no place to live safely or food to eat.

Locals told reporters visiting Beeni Sulehriyaan village in Charwah sector that there was acute shortage of fodder for cattle in the border villages.

Meanwhile, the district administration has established three relief centres for accommodating the large number of villagers affected by Indian shelling. But locals complained that these centres lacked basic facilities, there was wild grass and floodwater accumulated and that these centres were breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

Federal Minister for Law Zahid Hamid has assured villagers affected by Indian shelling in border villages that their financial compensation would be doubled soon, saying that the government was actively considering a proposal for the same and it would be finalised upon the arrival of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi from London.

He told this to the victims after distributing compensation cheques worth Rs500,000 each among heirs of four people killed by mortar shelling in Beeni Sulehriyaan village a few days ago. He also condemned the shelling and killing of innocent villagers.

The minister visited the border villages in Charwah, Sucheetgarh and Harpal sectors and met with locals, especially families who had lost relatives to the recent shelling.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2017