J&K woman wounded in Pak shelling relieved her kids escaped unhurt

Jammu, Oct 28 (PTI) “I was feeding my children when a mortar shell exploded with a deafening sound. I was hit by splinters but luckily my children escaped unhurt,” Rajni Devi narrated from her hospital bed the harrowing experience of Pakistani firing at Indian villages as she comforted her infant son.

Thirty-eight-year-old Devi and a BSF jawan were injured in the cross-border shelling by Pakistan Rangers that started around 8 pm Thursday in the Arnia area of R S Pura sector and lasted around seven hours. It was the first major ceasefire violation by Pakistan in Arnia in more than five years.

Devi, a resident of Kashipur, received splinter injuries in her right arm and is undergoing treatment at the Government Medical College Hospital in Jammu.

“I was feeding my children when a shell exploded with a deafening sound. I was hit by splinters but luckily my children escaped unhurt,” Devi told PTI.

She said the children were frightened by the explosion.

“While my eight-year-old elder son was dropped at my brother’s house, the younger one, aged one and half, is much more attached to me and not willing to leave. In fact, he has been having fever since the day of the incident,” she said.

Her husband and mother-in-law are tending to her at the hospital and she hopes to return home soon as it is the harvesting season.

“We faced Pakistani shelling in our village after a gap of more than five years, causing fear among the local population. I have minor children and I am very much concerned about their safety,” she said.

Devi’s mother-in-law Rani said Pakistan began the ceasefire violation with small arms firing and later started pounding the village with mortar shells.

“Life for the border villagers has become miserable. We are farmers and have no other source of income. If we fail to harvest paddy this time around, we will face heavy losses,” she said.

Chief Medical Officer Sony Singh said the condition of the woman and the BSF jawan was stable and they would be discharged soon.