SIALKOT: The people affected by the Indian shelling on the Sialkot border villages say they have been left unattended by the district administration in the harsh cold weather at emergency relief centres established to accommodate them.

They demonstrated at the relief centre of Chobara (Charwah sector) on Tuesday in the drizzle and said they had not been provided with food and lodging arrangements. They said they had also not fed their cattle heads.

They said that first they had suffered losses due to the unprovoked shelling by the Indian Border Security Forces and now they were facing the harsh weather and lack of food and shelter.

They said the tents erected to accommodate them and their cattle could not fight the freezing weather.

The district administration has set up such seven centres to lodge the displaced people. Most of the people, however, have not opted for centres because of the lack of facilities there.

Most of the Indian shelling affected people are from villages Phookaliyaan-Bajwat, Chaprar, Sucheetgarh, Harpal, Bajra Garhi, Charwah and Zafarwal, who left their houses for safer places due to a five-day long spell of Indian shelling there.

This Dawn correspondent spoke to displaced people - Chaudhry Allah Rakha, Ghulam Rasul, Khalid Mehmood, Bashir Ahmed, Muhammad Iqbal, Ghulam Hussain, Nazir Ahmed, Sakeena Bibi, Parveen Bibi, Saleema Bibi, Kausar Bib and Sumaira Raza - who complained the relief centres had nothing to provide them with relief.

These centres have been set up schools and basic health units. Deputy Commissioner (DC) Dr Farrukh Naveed said that the Sialkot district administration had established seven emergency relief centres (three in Bajwat-Chaprar sector and four in Charwah-Kingra and Harpal sectors) where the

district administration was providing them with basic facilities, such as food and medicines to the affected people and fodder and medicines for their cattle.

The DC said some people were staying with their relatives. He rejected the complaints that food was not being provided at centres.

Other than protestations at the centres, either side of the Sialkot Working Boundary remained silent on Tuesday. Uncertainty was still prevailing there in the villages, as the local people did not start returning to their homes.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan visited the shelling-hit villages in Phookaliyaan-Bajwat and Chaprar sectors on Tuesday and expressed her solidarity with the families.

Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2018