Jammu Tawi, Apr 26: Living in the shadow of rising tensions between India and Pakistan, villagers residing near the International Border and Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu region are filled with a sense of urgency as they clear underground bunkers, harvest crops along the fence and steel themselves for any potential escalation.
Thousands of underground safe shelters have been built by the government over the years for the protection of residents from firing by Pakistani troops.
Though the frequency of incidents of ceasefire violations has been low since 2021, when the two countries renewed the ceasefire agreement, the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attacks has sparked safety concerns among the border residents, officials said.Jammu travel guide
“Nobody knows what will happen next. We have decided to prepare the underground bunkers so that we can save ourselves in case there is shelling or firing from across the border,” Balbir Kour, former sarpanch of Treva village in R S Pura sector near here, said.
India shares a 3,323-km-long border with Pakistan of which 221 km of the IB and 744 km of the Line of Control fall in Jammu and Kashmir.
On February 25, 2021, India and Pakistan announced the implementation of a renewed ceasefire along the borders of Jammu and Kashmir, which came as a major relief to the people living along the IB and the LoC.
India and Pakistan had initially signed a ceasefire agreement in 2003, but Pakistan frequently violated the agreement with over 5,000 violations reported in 2020 – the highest in a single year.
