Pak shells injure 7, turn Kargil into ghost town again
Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar
Kargil, one of the most sensitive towns along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, has witnessed injuries to seven civilians, including a policeman, and extensive damage to property.
Again. In a rain of shells from Pakistan, which started on Friday evening and continued late into the night.
The heavy trans-border firing, in addition, saw massive destruction of the township's winter stock of food grains. The Food Corporation of India go-down, sources said, took direct hits.
Of the injured, the condition of two is very serious. And the township, which, after the earlier round of firing, was showing signs of population in the last two days, has slipped back to its recent state of comatose - the main body of residents have once again fled back to safer reaches, the Sankorku tehsil.
On Saturday, thus, the township was deserted barring the few civilians who had stayed back to take care of livestock, the handful of government servants and security personnel. Schools and the majority of government offices remained closed.
"We are in a fix," said Minister of State for Public Works Department Qamar Ali Akhoon, hailing from the troubled town, "We have been stocking winter ration for the past four months. But now everything is damaged. We have to rush ration to Kargil in the remaining one month before the roads close for winter in the last week of October."
Police sources said shells hit the sessions court, the offices of the deputy commissioner and senior superintendent of police and the radio station. Transmission had to be discontinued.
Adjoining areas -- including Pashkum, Baru, Kharbu, Hondurman and Prokpa Kharul -- were also hit.
A military spokesman said the Pak troops fired about 50 artillery and mortar shells in the sector. Indian troops retaliated, though the casualty on the other side was not immediately known.
Kargil, approximately 200 km away from Srinagar, has been taking the brunt of Pakistan's anger in the recent past. In fact, the situation had become so bad that Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah has promised to relocate the township to safer reaches.
In the past two months, over 35 people have been killed in the sector in trans-border firing.
Police sources said the people left in the town were sticking close to bunkers, which the state administration and civilians had built recently, for protection.
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