The emptiness that assails Rameez and Urusa Khan as they walk through the iron gates of their single-storey home in Poonch’s Chaktroo town is pervasive. It slips into their evening tea, haunts their favourite corners, and follows them as they visit the graves of their 11-year-old twins Zoya and Zain — both killed in last year’s cross-border shelling in Poonch during Operation Sindoor.
“They would open the gates for us when we came home from work,” says Rameez, a government teacher, like his wife Urusa. “We’re now simply passing through life.”
Zoya and Zain, who were born 5 minutes apart and died within minutes of each other on May 7, 2025, were among the 14 people killed in shelling in Poonch between that day and the next. According to government data, 65 people were injured in the shelling and 598 houses damaged.
On April 20-24 this year, many of the families here relived those scary moments and the loss of their loved ones when the administration carried out a mock drill. Many left immediately for safe ground.
Rameez, 47, recalls that he was trying to do the same with his children when the shell hit.
Originally from Chaktroo, some 9 km from the district headquarters of Poonch, the family was living in a rented accommodation in the main town. Zoya and Zain were enrolled in Class 5 at Christ School in Poonch, and the move was meant to bring them closer to their school.
“They earlier took a bus or auto rickshaw to school, and I worried about their safety. So, I told my wife we should move closer to the school,” Rameez says.
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On May 7, after the cross-border shelling started and the Poonch town was among those hit, Rameez decided to move the family to a relative’s home in the relatively safer Surankote. They had come out, with Urusa holding Zoya’s hand and Zain right behind, when a shell struck right outside their home, killing first Zoya and then Zain on the spot.
“They were born within 5 minutes of each other, Zoya and then Zain. They went the same way. Now, I often wonder why we moved there. Perhaps it was God’s will,” says Rameez, who was injured in the shelling and still carries a piece of splinter in his liver which doctors believe will be fatal if removed.
While Rameez was recovering, the family kept him in the dark about the twins’ deaths, afraid of how it would impact him.
It’s a sentiment others share. At Syndicate Chowk some 2 km away, in Poonch town’s main bazar, Jasmeet Kour sits at a confectionery shop once run by her husband Amreek Singh, who was killed on May 7. The shop, which was damaged in the shelling that struck Amreek, bears a new façade.
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Jasmeet was employed as a Class IV officer in the state Agriculture Department as compensation, and the family was given an ex-gratia of Rs 14 lakh.
However, like with the Khans, life for Jasmeet, and her two daughters and a son, is “frozen”. The eldest daughter is doing Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) training, while the two other children are still in school.
A neighbour, Ranjit Singh, was killed in the same incident.
Says Jasmeet: “When the shelling started, we went down into the basement behind the shop. Amreek came up for a moment, which was when an artillery shell fell on the road outside and tore through him.”
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Some distance away, like Amreek’s shop, the Zia-ul-Uloom madrasa too bears no outward scars of the shelling. However, says Maulana Sayeed Ahmed Habib, chairman of the Poonch-based Zia-ul-Uloom Group of Institutions: “No plastering can wipe away the horrors of that day… We were evacuating students in the hostels when it happened. Most of the nearly 400 children had already left but around 100 were remaining when the shell hit.”
Qari Muhammad Iqbal, 47, a quran teacher was killed while five students were injured. “When students returned, they found it hard to even look at their hostel. We had to counsel them for some time, dedicating two-three teachers for it,” says Habib, adding that every time since then that border tensions peak, the campus shows the strain.
Following the Poonch incidents, the Central and Jammu and Kashmir governments announced ex-gratia of Rs 16 lakh each to the families of the deceased, Rs 1 lakh for the seriously injured and an additional Rs 5 lakh for those who suffered permanent disabilities.
The government disbursed Rs 7.39 crore for reconstruction of pucca houses, Rs 2.25 crore for kuccha houses, and proposed the construction of 200-300 prefabricated three-room structures for people who could not rebuild homes despite government relief.
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The UT administration also proposed 5,693 new underground bunkers in Poonch – a vast majority of them community ones – officials said. It is awaiting approval.
Christ School, where Zoya and Zain studied, does not plan to mark the anniversary of their death; its intent has been to ensure that the students move on. “At first, they were deeply disturbed, but now they have gone back to their routines. They come, study, play… Why remind them?” a senior staff member asks.
Rameez has moved with his wife back to their old home in Chaktroo, and doesn’t plan to visit Poonch anytime soon. “We have planned a community meal here in the memory of our children.”
