Authorities in Pakistan-administered Kashmir have shut more than 1,000 religious schools over fears of possible retaliatory military action from India over last week’s deadly attack in the disputed region, as tensions soar between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
India blames Pakistan for the gun attack that killed 26 people on April 22 in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi providing his military “complete operational freedom” to deal with it.
About 1.5 million people live near the Line of Control (LoC) in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, where residents are also readying simple, mud-walled underground bunkers – reinforced with concrete if they can afford it.
“For one week we have been living in constant fear, particularly concerning the safety of our children,” Iftikhar Ahmad Mir, a 44-year-old shopkeeper in Chakothi near the LoC, told AFP.
“We make sure they don’t roam around after finishing their school and come straight home.”
Emergency services workers in Muzaffarabad, the main city in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, have also begun training schoolchildren on what to do if India attacks.
“We have learned how to dress a wounded person, how to carry someone on a stretcher and how to put out a fire,” said 11-year-old Ali Raza.
Will India attack?
On Wednesday, Modi chaired a Cabinet Committee on Security meeting, the second such meeting since the Pahalgam attack, the state-run Doordarshan broadcaster reported.
Meanwhile, as the neighbours continued to exchange gunfire along the LoC dividing Indian and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, other world leaders stepped up diplomacy in an attempt to ease spiralling tensions.
India on Wednesday also closed its airspace to Pakistani planes, after Pakistan banned Indian planes from overflying.