Congress leader Rahul Gandhi meets Pakistan shelling victims in Poonch
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi meets Pakistan shelling victims in Poonch
M.U.H
24/05/202518
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi visited Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district on Saturday to meet victims of the cross-border shelling by Pakistani troops earlier this month.
Showing scant regard for UN conventions, Pakistan army hit Christ School in the town with artillery shelling. Twins Ayan and Aruba, 13, children of Rameez Khan, who studied at Christ School, were killed in Pakistani shelling outside their rented home on the morning of May 7.
Interacting with students of Christ School, Gandhi said: “You’ve seen a little bit of danger but don’t worry everything will be back to normal. Your way of responding to this problem should be that you study hard, you play really hard and you make a lot of friends in school. Will you do that?”
Rahul also expressed regret that the two students had died in the shelling. “You lost your friends, I am really very sorry for that,” he said.
This is the second visit by the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha to the Union Territory since the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that claimed 26 lives, most of them tourists. Gandhi visited Srinagar on April 25 to meet those injured in the terror attack. He had also met Jammu and Kashmir lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha, chief minister Omar Abdullah and several stakeholders.
On Saturday morning, Gandhi reached Jammu airport and left for Poonch in a helicopter to visit the areas affected by the cross-border shelling and meet the bereaved families.
Jammu and Kashmir Congress president Tariq Hameed Karra said Gandhi visited shell-hit structures, including a gurdwara, a temple, a madrassa and the Christian missionary school. “Gandhi is the first national leader to reach out to the affected population to express his solidarity and share their pain,” he said.
Poonch sector witnessed heightened artillery and mortar shelling after India carried out precise strikes under Operation Sindoor on nine terror hubs in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on May 7 in response to the Pahalgam massacre.
A wave of artillery shelling, missiles and drone strikes by Pakistan killed 28 people, 13 in Poonch district alone, and injured more than 70 between May 7 and 10 across Jammu and Kashmir.
Scores fled their homes from areas near the Line of Control (LoC) and the international border areas to seek refuge in government-run relief camps.
India and Pakistan reached an understanding on May 10 to end the military confrontation after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes.
During his visit to Jammu and Kashmir last month following the terror attack, Gandhi had said the idea behind the terror strike was to divide the people of the country and it was imperative that India stood united to defeat terrorism once and for all.
