The villagers live in homes with walls that are riddled with bullets
Those who live near the border in Kashmir are assessing this evening what the cancellation of talks with Pakistan will mean to their lives.
They live in homes with walls that are riddled with bullets, in villages that have scattered remains of rockets and dead animals killed in Pakistani shelling. They say they are now worried whether New Delhi calling off talks could escalate tension at the border.
There has been firing and shelling at the border in multiple incidents of ceasefire violation by Pakistani troops on Indian posts in the last 10 days, with intense shelling on Sunday night, when firing went on for 12 hours straight in the RS Pura and Arnia sectors.
Twenty posts of the Border Security Force or BSF were targeted and several houses in the area were damaged.
Terrified villagers in the Arnia sector pointed to remains of rockets which landed in their villages. "My father was sleeping on the terrace. Just as I brought him down, a big shell fell on the roof and shook the whole house," said a resident of the area, Kamlesh.
There are people, entire villages, that had migrated out of the region years ago, and returned after India and Pakistan signed a ceasefire agreement in November 2003. They are now wondering whether it was a prudent move to come back.
"If the firing continues we may have to leave our villages and go to safer places; the government should do something about this, there is a sense of fear every time here," another resident of the area Jagdev Singh said.
There have been more than 70 incidents of ceasefire violation by Pakistan since the Modi government came to power at the Centre in May this year. Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said today that these were "deliberate" and that "it is obvious that Pakistan and the powers within don't want ties between the two countries to be normal."
"The ceasefire violations indicate the frustration of Pakistani Rangers ahead of the Indo-Pak talks," said a senior BSF officer Rakesh Kumar. Many in Pakistan's security establishment are seen as opposed to political attempts to resume diplomatic talks with India.
On Monday evening, India called off Foreign Secretary-level talks with Pakistan sending a stern signal that talks with separatists and government of India cannot happen simultaneously.