Amid pounding artillery fire, Amarjeet Singh rushed to the ground floor of his house, seeking safety from the projectiles overhead. At that moment, a mortar shell fired from Pakistan tore through his home in the border district of Poonch in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Splinters from the munition punctured his lungs and the 50 year old later died in hospital, his nephew Atinder Pal Singh told The National.
He is among 16 people, including four children, who have been killed since Wednesday in intense fire that has bombarded Indian towns along the Line of Control, the de facto border in Kashmir.
The violence began when New Delhi on Wednesday carried out air strikes against Pakistan in retaliation for a gun attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22 that India blamed on Islamabad.
“We ran barefoot to the hospital," said the nephew. "He was talking till his last breath but his lungs were punctured and he died despite two surgeries."
Amarjeet Singh’s elder brother Surjan, 61, was also wounded in one ear. “The shelling continued all night,” he said. “There are cracks on all the walls of my house.”
A sense of jubilation has gripped many parts of India after New Delhi carried out the air strikes. Many Indians see the missile strikes on "terror groups" as a befitting reply to the attack on tourists in the Himalayan hill station of Pahalgam.
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A child looks on after taking refuge at a school in Jammu, Indian-administered Kashmir, following an exchange of shelling and small arms fire across the border. Getty Images -
Streaks of light in the skies over the city of Jammu in Indian-administered Kashmir, during a suspected drone attack from the Pakistan side. Getty Images -
A Pakistani paramilitary trooper keeps guard at Karachi Port. Reuters -
A candlelight vigil for victims of a Indian missile strike on Bilal Mosque in Muzaffarabad, Pakistani-administered Kashmir. EPA -
Security personnel at Karachi Port, southern Pakistan. EPA -
Lorries gridlocked near Pakistan's Karachi Port following the military escalation between New Delhi and Islamabad. EPA -
India's air defence system intercepts objects during a blackout following blasts in the city of Jammu, in Indian-administered Kashmir. Reuters -
The damaged Jamia Masjid Subhan Allah compound after an Indian strike on the outskirts of Bahawalpur in Pakistan's Punjab province. AFP -
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif addressing the special session at the National Assembly in Islamabad. AFP -
Villagers carry their belongings as they move to safer areas after authorities evacuated residents living near the border at Jeora Farm on the outskirts of Jammu. AFP -
National Cadet Corps cadets shout slogans after conducting an emergency simulation drill as part of the nationwide civil defence mock drills in Amritsar. AFP -
National Disaster Response Force, civil defence and fire personnel conduct an air raid drill at Khan market in New Delhi. EPA -
An artillery shell lands in the main town of Poonch district in India's Jammu region on Wednesday as Pakistani troops launch shells from across the Line of Control in retaliation for Indian missile strikes. AFP -
Poonch locals load their belongings on a bus as they flee the shelling. AFP -
Workers paint a red cross symbol on the roof of a hospital to deter a potential attack in Srinagar, in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. AFP -
Indian school pupils take part in a drill at Rajkiya Sarvodaya Vidyalaya in New Delhi. EPA -
Another Pakistani shell hits Poonch. AFP -
Rescuers search for survivors after India struck a building in a government-run complex in Muridke, Pakistan, about 30km from Lahore. AFP -
The mosque of an Islamic seminary partially damaged by an Indian missile attack, on the outskirts of Bahawalpur, Pakistan. AP -
Residents are evacuated from an area close to the site of an Indian missile attack, near Muzaffarabad. AP -
Bilal mosque lies in ruins after being struck by Indian missiles in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. AP -
Volunteers load a body into an ambulance after recovering it from the rubble of a mosque building damaged by a suspected Indian missile attack near Muzaffarabad. AP -
A lorry transports an army tank on a road in Muridke, about 30km from Lahore. AFP -
Indian Air Force personnel patrol on the outskirts of Srinagar. EPA -
Indian troops patrol a security checkpoint on the outskirts of Srinagar. EPA -
Passengers stranded at Jinnah International airport after all domestic and international flights were cancelled in Karachi. AFP -
Protesters burn an Indian flag during a demonstration condemning Indian missile strikes in Hyderabad, Pakistan. AP
But in border regions, fear and panic has gripped residents. Hundreds have fled their homes on the Indian side while others have hidden in bunkers. A Sikh temple was attacked and a teacher at an Islamic seminary was killed.
The Singh family are from Kuma Khan village in Poonch, the worst-hit district in Jammu region, but shelling has also been reported in the Kashmir towns of Rajouri, Uri and Baramulla.
Atinder Singh said he had never seen such an intense round of fire and pleaded with the government not to go to war.
“People living in the Indian cities are watching this on TV but we are facing it. My cousin’s daughter is in class four and son is in class eight — who will think of them?" he said.
"Seventy per cent of Poonch’s population have left the town. Not a single shop is open, we needed water bottles but couldn’t get them.
“We request that the government stop this war and let us live peacefully. No one in Poonch has slept for the last three days.”
Similar sentiments were echoed by Dr Sarfaraz Mir, who lost his 10-year-old twin cousins Urva Fatima and Zain Ali in the violence.
“The mortar hit the roof of their house and splinters hit my cousins – they died on the spot,” Dr Mir told The National.
“What happened in Pahalgam was wrong and India has already avenged the killings, but this must stop now. But what Pakistan is doing is also wrong. War has never been a solution.”
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Indian troops in the Kashmir region, during the war with Pakistan in 1965. All photos: AP -
Pakistani soldiers take cover during shelling from Indian forces, in the Jessore area of East Pakistan in 1971. -
Indian artillery guns are engulfed in smoke in Dras, 155km north of Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir, amid fighting in 1999. -
A village in Pakistan-administered Kashmir near the Line of Control, which divides India and Pakistan. -
An Indian soldier takes cover near the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai, during a gun battle with militants in 2008. -
Indian soldiers conduct a search operation outside the Pathankot airbase, after an attack by extremists in 2016. -
A fire burns at a residential building where militants are thought to have taken refuge during a deadly attack in Pulwama, Indian-administered Kashmir, in 2019. -
Security officers at the site of a deadly attack on tourists in Pahalgam, Indian-administered Kashmir, in April 2025.
India and Pakistan, both nuclear-armed nations, have fought three wars over Kashmir, the last in 1999 which lasted two months. More than 500 Indian soldiers were killed, while estimates of Pakistani losses range from 400 to about 4,000.
There have been regular skirmishes and cross-border fire at the border since then but the nations agreed to a ceasefire in 2021, which was broken after the April 22 attack on tourists.
In the Pahalgam ambush, 26 people were killed by armed gunmen in the Himalayan picnic spot in the Kashmir valley.
The Resistance Front, an extremist group, claimed responsibility. New Delhi accuses Islamabad of backing militant groups in Kashmir, a charge denied by Pakistan.
Anas Hamdani, 31, who lives in Karachi, said he fears an all-out war with mass loss of life. His niece was injured in an explosion outside her college on Thursday in Rawalpindi, a city about 40km from the border that houses Pakistan’s military headquarters. The Pakistani military has suggested an Indian drone was involved.
“We are worried," Mr Hamdani told The National. "I was talking to my niece, she is at a hospital in Rawalpindi. She told me that a bomb exploded just 30 minutes ago near her college and that they were running home.
“We have lost a seven-year-old boy in Kashmir. By what number will this be multiplied if this war escalates? It will not be Pakistan or India who win – it will be humanity that loses. We pray that both sides act sensibly and save precious lives.”
