Fear grips border villages in Punjab as tension escalates with Pakistan

An atmosphere of fear looms large over the border villages of Gurdaspur, Punjab, where security officials are making regular announcements urging people to stay alert and avoid moving too close to the border with Pakistan

Amritsar: An atmosphere of fear looms large over the border villages of Gurdaspur, Punjab, where security officials are making regular announcements urging people to stay alert and avoid moving too close to the border with Pakistan.

Pakistan’s repeated attempts to facilitate cross-border terrorism in India have heightened tensions between the two nations, leaving people living in border areas deeply worried about what lies ahead if war breaks out.

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Fearing for their lives and livelihoods, the residents of Gurdaspur stressed that a war would only lead to the loss of countless innocent lives. While condemning the Pahalgam terror attack, people in Gurdaspur expressed growing unease over the current war-like situation between the two countries.

Speaking to media persons, a villager said, “The Pahalgam terror attack claimed a lot of lives. It is highly condemnable. Following that attack, announcements are being made in the Gurudwara Sahib of the village that the people of the border village should remain alert, the youth of the village should keep watch even at night, and there should be no movement anywhere nearby. If there is any movement, the police and the BSF should be immediately informed.”

“Whatever happened in Pahalgam was condemnable. However, if a war breaks out, we will suffer a lot of loss; where will we go with our children and animals? The BSF jawans had come to the village and asked us to be alert, and also ordered us to quickly harvest the crops of the farmers across the barbed wire. Every day, announcements are being made. There will be a loss of lives if war breaks out,” another added.

“When a war breaks out, there is no place to live for them. We incur a lot of losses. We have seen a lot of wars, and we do not wish to see another. The government says that it has helped the border villages following the war, but we do not get anything,” another villager lamented.

Another villager voiced similar concerns, saying, “It’s not only about our loss; a lot of soldiers get killed in the war. Recently, a BSF soldier was about to step on an IED; he was about to get killed. A girl from the village was also about to get killed due to an IED. We don’t want war.”

Tensions between the two countries have mounted after LeT terrorists, sponsored and aided by Pakistan, killed 26 innocent civilians, including 25 tourists and a local, on April 22 in the Baisaran meadow of Pahalgam.

The entire country expressed outrage over the cowardly act as Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his first reaction to the Pahalgam killings that the terrorists, their handlers, and their backers would be chased and hunted down to the ends of the earth.

In response to the attack, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), led by Prime Minister Modi, announced a series of stringent measures.

These include the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, closure of the Attari-Wagah border, cancellation of the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme (SVES) for Pakistani nationals, expulsion of Pakistan’s military attaches from New Delhi and a reduction in diplomatic staff at both High Commissions.