VICTIM WHO LOST 5 OF FAMILY STILL REELING UNDER SHOCK
JAMMU: “My mother was about to serve us breakfast when suddenly, we heard a loud explosion and the roof of our house collapsed. I felt something had struck me and saw blood coming out from my arm. I ran out of the house and then fell down. When I woke up, I was in the hospital.” This is how 12-year-old Nasreen Kauser describes the tragedy that struck her family when a mortar shell fired by Pakistan Army fell on their house in Davitta village in Balakote area of Poonch district on Sunday.
Her parents and three brothers were killed in the shelling, while her sister Mahreen Kauser, 6, and she fight for their lives battling splinter injuries in Government Medical College Hospital in Jammu.
Mahreen’s condition continues to remain critical even as a four-hour procedure was carried out on Sunday evening to remove splinters from her liver.
Relatives try to keep Nasreen’s mind away from the tragedy but inadvertently break into tears themselves. “Firing happened frequently in our area but this time, we (our locality) were the target,” she added. She wanted to share more but tears made speech difficult.
The two sisters will now be taken care of by their grandmother and uncle, who live in the vicinity.
Later, relatives and neighbours performed the last rights of the deceased in a local graveyard.