PHOTOS: Shell-shocked along the LoC

Blood splattered compounds, smashed window panes and demolished roofs are all that are left of houses in border hamlets which have been battered in Pakistani shelling in the last four days.
12 people, including five security personnel, have been killed and over 60 others injured in the Pakistani firing in Jammu since January 17.

A woman picks up the tail of a Pakistani mortar shell at her home at Kanachak village near Akhnoor in Jammu.
A pall of gloom has fallen on villages around the International Boundary and the Line of Control as Pakistan continues its shelling. Photograph: PTI Photo

Border hamlets have virtually turned into war zones. There has been huge damage to homes and a loss of cattle. Photograph: PTI Photo

The villagers say they are living in the shadow of death. The government, the villagers say, has failed to construct bunkers despite claims the governments in Delhi and Srinagar have made for several years. Photograph: PTI Photo

Over 150 animals in 50 hamlets in Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Rajouri and Poonch districts have died in the Pakistani shelling. Photograph: PTI Photo

A man looks at the wall of his home damaged in the Pakistani firing at Kanachak in Akhnoor. Photograph: Mukesh Gupta/Reuters

Another home ruined in the Pakistani shelling. Photograph: PTI Photo

Women show the mortar shells Pakistan has rained down on them. Farmlands have craters created by the mortars and have turned into live minefields. Photograph: PTI Photo

A girl mourns her father who was killed in the Pakistan firing at Kanachak in Akhnoor. Photograph: Mukesh Gupta/Reuters

A BSF officer injured in the shelling in R S Pura being treated in hospital. Five security personnel were killed in the firing which began late on January 17. Photograph: PTI Photo

An elderly woman being evacuated by Jammu and Kashmir police personnel after the heavy Pakistani shelling began. More than 700 people have been evacuated to safer places. Photograph: PTI Photo