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Shelling is part of life, say Kargil natives

You live and, if you are smart and want to survive, you learn.

The inhabitants of Kargil -- at least, those who survived the carnage of September 30, 1997 -- appeared to have learnt their lessons. Thus, this time round, no sooner had the first shell whistled across the border and landed in town, than the denizens fled.

Within minutes, the town was deserted, the inhabitants -- man, woman, and child -- ensconced in the various bunkers and out of reach of the exploding shells.

Last year, similar shelling had caught the natives unprepared. Some thought that their homes provided the best shelter, others took refuge in shop-fronts like they would have done in a rainstorm.

Fifteen killed, 21 wounded, was the toll on that occasion. Not to mention over two score homes, shops and government buildings destroyed.

This time round, there are no reports of casualties, though the shelling was equally heavy.

On a visit to Kargil after the incident, this correspondent found that the priorities of the natives have changed -- construction activity, thus, focuses not on buildings but on bunkers.

Located strategically on the Srinagar-Leh national highway at nearly 13,000 feet above sea level, Kargil township has inevitably been targeted whenever there is an escalation in tensions along the Indo-Pak border.

The town's misfortune is that it is within easy shelling range of Pakistani pickets, and thus a soft target for attack.

Learning from their experiences, the inhabitants these days head for the bunkers the minute the alarm sounds. "Only stray dogs and cattle are left behind in such emergencies," says Habibullah, a grizzled native. "We have accepted the shelling as part of our existence. Whenever there is shelling, we rush to the bunkers, or even sometimes flee to adjoining villages."

Some locals, however, believe the bunkers are inadequate, and argue that the safest recourse is to evacuate the town and rush to Baru village.

The biggest grouse of the natives is that shelling incidents trigger a total abdication of responsibility on the part of the administration. "The officials are the first to flee," a native cribs.

The people of Kargil expect the government to step in and do, in organised fashion, what they have rather haphazardly been doing for themselves. "We want the government to provide us with fortified bunkers -- not homes. After all, bunkers are far safer for us, and it is high time the government started thinking of providing us what we want, instead of dumping house-building materials on us," says Ghulam Mohammad, headman of Kargil.

And the army? "Well, we mostly don't go in for retaliatory firing," said a senior army officer. "But if we see that the town is targetted, then we go in for retaliatory shelling."

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