Ten kilometres from Poonch town lies the hillside village of Chakthru, where small clusters of houses cling to the slopes—a pattern shaped by the region’s mountainous terrain and scarcity of flat land. Among them is a house with a vintage design, a well-kept lawn and fruit trees. Inside, Rameez Khan sits quietly. Silence surrounds the house, which once echoed with the laughter of his 12-year-old twins—Urwa Fatima and Zain Ali. The siblings were killed on May 7 when a shell fired from across the Line of Control exploded at their rented accommodation in Mandi. The family had moved there to ensure better education for the children at Christ School. “The daily travel from our village to the school was exhausting,” recalls Khan. “So, we moved to Mandi.” The twins now lie buried in the backyard of their Chakthru home.
Khan was grievously injured in the shelling, as shrapnel tore through his hand and arm. Some splinters remain lodged on his back. His wife, Urusa, a school teacher, attended to her injured husband while silently grieving the death of their children. At the hospital, when Khan would ask about the twins, she would lie to him, saying they were recovering.
“The killing of Urwa and Zain plunged Poonch into grief,” says Zulfikar Ahmed, a Youth Congress leader. “The incident left everyone shaken.” Poonch, surrounded by Pakistan from three sides, witnessed one of the heaviest shelling in decades, leaving the town empty, says Ahmed. The shelling began after India launched Operation Sindoor in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. Although 15 people were killed and scores injured, the killing of Urwa and Zain left all of Jammu and Kashmir in mourning. The tragedy moved many, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
During his visit to Poonch on June 24, Gandhi met families affected by Pakistani shelling and stopped by Christ School. That is when he announced educational support for children who had lost parents in the shelling.
“Rahul Gandhi was moved by the tragedy of the families who had lost their breadwinner, so he decided to do something for them,” said Poonch native Shahnawaz Choudhary, secretary of the All India Congress Committee. “He had asked for a list of children who needed help to continue their education.”
On July 30, the Youth Congress announced that Gandhi had “adopted” 30 children from Poonch and provided each of them Rs40,000 in initial instalment to support their schooling up to class 12.
Among the recipients were Gursharnagat Kour, a class two student, and her elder brother, Amanpreet Singh, a class eight student. Their father Amarjit Singh, a retired soldier, was killed when a shell struck their home near the District Hospital in Pooch.
“I miss papa very much. He cared a lot for me,” says Gursharnagat. “I want to study hard and make my father proud.”
Their mother Harpreet Kour says the government had provided her with a job, as it did for the next of kin of all those killed in Pakistan’s shelling. “The children still talk about their father,” she says. “He had just returned from the gurdwara that morning when a shell exploded in the lobby. Though badly injured, he rushed to the hospital. But the shrapnel had damaged his lungs, and he died because of internal bleeding.”
At Sunday Gate, just a kilometre and a half from the District Hospital, Manatveer Singh and his two sisters Japneet Kour and Ashpreet Kour are still coming to terms with the trauma of losing their father Amrik Singh. He was killed while trying to move his family to safety in a basement during the shelling. Singh ran a small grocery shop just outside their home.
After the tragedy, his children led a campaign urging the government to declare all civilians killed during Operation Sindoor as martyrs. On Vijay Diwas, the Army honoured their demand by building a memorial in Poonch.
“We are happy that our father’s name is inscribed on the memorial,” says Japneet, a class 11 student. Manatveer is grateful for the financial support provided by Gandhi for children like him. “I haven’t yet decided which stream I will choose, but my sister Japneet wants to become a doctor,” he says.
Their neighbour Ranjit Singh was also killed in the same shelling. Since he was unmarried, his brother Balveer Singh was given a government job to support their elderly parents.
In Sokha Katha near the Police Lines in Poonch, Afreen, 19, is determined to change her family’s fate through education. Her father Mohammad Akram, the family’s sole breadwinner, was killed when a shell struck just as he stepped out of the house to use the washroom. His sudden death shattered the family, including his wife Fareeda Bi and their six children—four daughters and two sons. One of Afreen’s younger sisters was also injured.
But Afreen has not allowed grief to derail her ambition. A college student with aspirations of getting a master’s degree, she has become a source of strength to her younger siblings. “Rahul Gandhi’s help has come at a time we needed it most,” she says. Each of her five siblings received support, ensuring their education was not interrupted. “This support is not just about money, but hope,” says Afreen. “Now my younger brothers and sisters feel that they, too, can continue studying and dream big, even after everything we have been through.” Her father wanted them to be educated, she recalls. “That dream lives on. I want all of us to succeed,” she says. “That’s how we will keep our father’s memory alive.”
Fareeda Bi finds courage in her daughter’s resilience. Speaking softly, she says she was grateful to Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha for sanctioning her a job. “My appointment is pending police verification,” she says. “Everything has changed since my husband left us. My children are my only hope.”
Haroon, just nine, has gone quiet after losing his father Muhammad Iqbal in the shelling. His father was a teacher at Zia-ul-Uloom, a seminary in Poonch that provides free education and Islamic studies to more than 3,000 students, including girls. A shell exploded on campus, and he was critically injured. He was rushed to the hospital, but succumbed to his injuries. Four students were also injured in the incident, but they slowly recovered.
Iqbal was mistakenly labelled a terrorist commander killed in Operation Sindoor by some national news channels in New Delhi, which triggered outrage in Poonch. The police refuted the news channels’ claims, calling him a respected citizen. An FIR was lodged against the channel for false reporting on court orders.
Haroon, the youngest of Iqbal’s eight children from two wives, is now a student at the same seminary. “I want to follow in my father’s footsteps,” he says.
Scarred by the conflict, children in Poonch are slowly reclaiming their future with the support of the government and Gandhi’s benevolence.