In Gurez Valley, a remote corner of Indian-administered Kashmir, 26-year-old Ejaz Dar often sits on a weathered bench outside his mud-and-timber home, his eyes fixed on the rugged peaks 12 kilometers away.
Those peaks mark the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border dividing the disputed territory of Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
Dar’s home lies dangerously close to this volatile line, but his thoughts drift elsewhere, to the day in 2019 when his aunt left the family’s bunker to fetch food for her child during a round of intense shelling.
A mortar blast tore through the silence, leaving nothing behind.
“There was nothing left of her,” Dar says quietly. “When I hear talk of war on the radio, her memory hits hard.”
In Kashmir, grief isn’t new. But the recent flare-ups between the two nuclear-armed states have revived fears, especially for those living near the border.
The recent escalation followed a deadly attack on 22 April, in Pahalgam, a town in Indian-administered Kashmir. Twenty-six tourists, mostly Hindus, were killed.
The Resistance Front, an insurgent militia, initially claimed responsibility, then retracted the statement, saying that its account on a digital platform had been hacked.
India blamed Pakistan and promised retribution. Pakistan denied involvement in the attack and called for an international investigation.
Days later, India launched Operation Sindoor, a wave of air strikes, describing them as “non-escalatory” in nature.
Many of the drones used in the operation were Israeli-made. (more...)
India’s sinister alliance with Israel
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