Indian team dissects bombs in Kashmir border area
Parvaiz Bukhari
India URI (AFP) May 12, 2025
On Monday, a team of experts carried out unexploded bombs in the border area of India and Pakistan before sending displaced Kashmir villagers back home after a ceasefire between nuclear-weapon enemies.
Last week, thousands of people on the Himalayan territory fled the fierce artillery bombing, reducing many houses to rubble.
A truce announced on Saturday ended a four-day missile, drone and shell attack that killed dozens of people in India and Pakistan, the worst clash since 1999.
Police issued a written statement warning people to “under no circumstances should they approach, touch, tamper or attempt to move any suspicious object similar to an explosive shell or device.”
The bomb disposal team was emanating in Uri, near the border with Pakistan, in fact, to ensure complete safety before residents return.
“We start with people reporting on houses where the statute is not exploded,” senior police officer Gurinderpal Singh told AFP.
Singh refused to specify how many teams or where he sent.
– Subtle missions –
“Each ordinance is unique and needs to be handled very carefully,” Singh said.
Hundreds of border residents living in government buildings are eager to return home, waiting for authorities to declare their village safe.
Mohammad Shafiq, a resident of Mohra Village, told AFP in a shelter about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from his house.
His family of five was evacuated by the army after a bomb exploded in their village last week.
“But police told us we should not return until any unexploded mortar shells are removed,” the 47-year-old said.
Mareena, a 28-year-old mother of three, said she was about 50 kilometers from the border home before the Army truck evacuated the sheep to Boniyar’s shelter.
– ‘I want to go back’ –
“I don’t know what’s going on in my home,” Marena said. “I want to go back, but I’m not confident yet. Anything will happen – it’s hard for us to save lives.”
Even those who have been destroyed by shells are desperate to return.
Basharat Hussain, 35, packed his nine families in a car and went home.
“We want to see what can be saved and rebuilt,” Hussein told AFP, who told AFP while waiting at the military checkpoint that he begged the soldiers to let them move forward.
“We also have to look for our cows and other items,” he said, showing a video of a damaged house sent to his cell phone.
Local reports said that on Monday, six of the about 35 bomb villages in Uri were declared safe for residents to return.
The video shows authorities bringing some displaced families back to their village from the bus shelter.
Kashmir Muslim majority Kashmir has been split between India and Pakistan since independence from the British rule in 1947.
Since then, they have fought three wars on the controversial and divided territory of parts management.
The latest battle threatens a full-scale conflict that spins before dawn on Wednesday, when India launched a missile strike that undermined Pakistan’s so-called “terror camps” and part of Islamabad control in Kashmir.
The battle caused 26 civilians following the April 22 attack on tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
India accused Pakistan of supporting the attack, but Islamabad denied participating in the attack and immediately responded to a strike of fierce artillery fire and incited the latest clash.
Since 2019, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Indian nationalist government has revoked limited autonomy in the region and imposed direct rule from New Delhi, radicals against Kashmir’s rule have stepped up attacks on security forces.
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