SrinagarThe guns continued to roar in border hamlets along the Line of Control (LoC) in Haji Pir sector of Uri in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district on Saturday.
Report said there was more chaos as announcement were made from other side of the Line of Control by Pakistani army through public address systems, asking residents of Uri to vacate their homes.
Reports said Pakistani army started making announcements amid intense shelling and firing exchange between the two sides along the Line of Control in Uri.
In twin villages of Uri’s Silkote and Churanda five residential houses were damaged on Saturday morning in heavy exchange of artillery between the two sides.
Evacuation of local population has been started on war footing basis in Uri , said an official.
Scores of vehicles including ambulances have been pressed into the service to evacuate civilian population, said an official, adding that 100 people have been taken to safer locations from morning.
Eyewitnesses said over phone that the shelling started early morning. “Though it was moderate in the beginning, as the time passed it grew intense and the mortar shells fired from across the border started landing in border villages,” they said.
On Friday and day earlier around 500 people abandoned their homes in Uri villages as Indian and Pakistani armies continued to exchange heavy fire in the area.
An official said such a huge number of people migrating in a single day was major displacement in the past three decades.
The fleeing families demand protection of their lives. “The J&K government should build shelters for us. Either the authorities should create underground bunkers for all of us or rehabilitate us in the plains,” they told reporters.
Meanwhile, the local administration in Uri has established control room in the area.
Officials said that several people are reportedly trapped in Silkote and Churanda villages and efforts are on to shift them to safer places.
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