Along the 786 km-long Line of Control (LoC) which divides the State of Jammu Kashmir between India and Pakistan, sporadic cross-border military gunfire between both countries is not that unusual.

However, this weekend, in the region of Noushera, Rajouri and Akhnoor sectors of Jammu and Kashmir, more than 40,000 Indians have fled their homes and shops amid the fourth consecutive day of intense shelling from Pakistani military forces, the Economic Timesreports.

In the latest report from Indian 24 News, cross-border firing between both countries continues along the international border in the Kanachak and Pargwal sectors in Jammu, besides the LoC in the Nowshera area of Rajouri district on Sunday evening.

The number of people killed on the Indian side this month has risen to 13 including three armymen, three BSF personnel and seven civilians. The toll is almost as high as number of causalities on the Indian side in the entire of 2017, when nearly a dozen people including security personnel were killed on the entire border from Kathua to Poonch district. In most of the villages, almost entire populations have shifted to safer places fearing an escalation of firing along the border. Sources said that most of the people had shifted to their relatives’ homes.

Arnia, a border town in the Jammu district in the state of Jammu & Kashmir, India, with a population of 18,000, is now deserted as the intense shelling from Pakistan drove residents to safer grounds.

The Economic Times describes a first-hand account of the chaos in Arnia, as 80-year-old Yashpal and his family huddled in their house until two mortar shells damaged it.

“It had happened during the 1965 and the 1971 wars. Such large number of mortar bombs had not since fallen in Arnia,” Yashpal said.

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