Jammu Burns with Anger as Ceasefire Fuels PoK Discontent

In the rugged hills of Jammu, where the echoes of past wars linger, the recent “ceasefire understanding” between India and Pakistan has triggered a storm of disbelief and smouldering anger.

Jammu is home to diverse conflict-affected communities: families displaced in 1947 from Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK); individuals from West Pakistan, mainly Sialkot in Pakistan’s Punjab, who migrated during the Partition (1947); people from Chhamb, primarily Hindus from PoJK’s Mirpur region, displaced during the 1965 and 1971 wars; Kashmiri Pandits, displaced from the Kashmir Valley due to Pakistan-backed insurgency in 1989–90; and other terrorism-affected internally displaced migrants from the Pir Panjal region.

For those scarred by over seven decades of border conflict and terrorism, the sudden ceasefire following India’s May 7 air strikes felt more like a betrayal than a relief. The announcement of the ceasefire on May 10 was swiftly followed by ceasefire violations: shelling, cross-border firing, and swarms of Pakistani drones flying over Jammu and nearby districts.

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“Pakistan was reeling, but the truce halted our military momentum. The prevailing sentiment in Jammu is that Pakistan was not punished adequately,” said Major General Goverdhan Singh Jamwal (retd), 97, a decorated veteran, the only Major General of the Jammu and Kashmir State Forces commissioned by Maharaja Hari Singh, who went on to serve Indian Army and retired as Military Secretary to the President of India. Echoing a dominant sentiment in the region, Jamwal added: “For the first time, Kashmir and Jammu stood united in support of a strong action against Pakistan. But we have missed an opportunity to decisively decimate terrorism infrastructure across the border.”

Decades of conflict

A witness to decades of conflict, Jamwal, co-author of Valour & Betrayal: Last Man Last Round Battles of Brigadier Rajinder Singh, MVC sees the “ceasefire” as a painful reminder of history’s unlearned hard lessons. The princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, under Dogra rule spanned Gilgit-Baltistan, Skardu, and Hunza until 1947. “Pakistan’s creation sowed chaos across the region. Its repeated aggressions, undeterred by repeated military defeats, prove it cannot be trusted. Had we taken a strong action against Pakistan at the time of exodus of Pandits from Kashmir, it would have saved us from Pakistan’s several misadventures,” he said, Underscoring the recent spike in terrorist attacks in several districts of Jammu, he added: “This ceasefire must not lull us into lowering our guard.” Ajit Kumar, a Hiranagar-based member of the Border Welfare Association in Kathua district, said: “We were expecting 1971- [when Bangladesh was created] like results this time. But now there seems to be no end to our fears and frustrations.” India designates the line separating India and Pakistan in Kathua, Samba, and parts of Jammu as the “International Border”, while Pakistan refers to it as the “Working Boundary” to indicate that Jammu and Kashmir is disputed.

The Jammu province, which has 10 districts, contributes recruits to 4 Indian Army regiments: the Jammu and Kashmir Rifles, the Dogra Regiment, the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry, and the Punjab Regiment. Statues of warriors and war veterans, cast in bronze and stone, stand sentinel at crossroads and city squares in the heart of Jammu city. Numerous forward villages in Kathua, Samba, and parts of Jammu feature such statues, erected by their families in memory of soldiers who gave their lives in service.

The BJP has garnered votes on the issues of security and nationalism, especially in Hindu-majority areas such as Kathua, Samba, Jammu, and others. In the 2024 Jammu and Kashmir Assembly election, the BJP won 29 seats with the largest vote share in the Union Territory. After the ceasefire, local BJP leaders expressed disappointment, admitting privately that the move had left them shell-shocked.

BJP’s ideological and political agenda

In the recent years, the BJP has, as a part of its ideological and political agenda, amplified its resolve to reclaim PoJK. The Indian Parliament, through the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, reserved 24 seats for PoJK in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, affirming India’s claim over the region. Union Home Minister Amit Shah declared in Parliament that PoJK is an integral part of India: “Whenever I talk about Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Aksai Chin come under it and we can die for it.”

SOS International, a Jammu-based organisation advocating for the rights of displaced people from PoJK, planned a peaceful march from Jammu to PoJK to demand the reclamation of ancestral properties from Pakistan’s illegal occupation. But after the ceasefire announcement, it had to drop the plan.

“This decision risks prolonging the suffering of PoJK-displaced persons. The government has prioritised short-term political interests over the long-term national interest,” said Rajiv Chuni, chairman of SOS International. He felt that the ceasefire decision risked emboldening Pakistan to continue its proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir.

Nestled along the Line of Control (LoC) on three sides, Poonch district is exposed to frequent Pakistani aggression, with enemy outposts on nearby hills enabling disturbingly easy targeting of civilian areas. Many elderly residents claimed that the latest conflict was in many ways worse than situation during the 1947–48 “Siege of Poonch”, a year-long blockade by Pakistani forces and tribal militias following the Maharaja’s accession to India. Indian troops eventually secured the town, but the LoC irrevocably divided the region and families. In April 2019, India suspended cross-LoC trade via Poonch-Rawalakot, prompting Pakistan to retaliate by halting the trans-border bus service after the Central government revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special status in August that year.

The Haji Pir Pass once linked Poonch to the Kashmir Valley but was lost to Pakistan in 1947–48. It was briefly recaptured in 1965 and then returned under the Tashkent Agreement, cementing infiltration routes and forcing travellers in India to use the longer Jammu-Srinagar highway. In 2009, the Mughal Road was revived as an alternative fair weather road link.

The LoC, formalised after the 1948 and 1971 wars under the Simla Agreement, was meant to ensure peace. Yet, in Poonch, Pakistan steadily encroached upon forward areas. By the early 1990s, the Indian Army withdrew from several front-line villages, including Keerni in Haveli tehsil. Nearly half its residents (300 families) crossed over, leaving the rest stranded until 2010, when a border fence placed the entire village on the Pakistani side. Similar tragedies unfolded elsewhere.

“In Mandi block’s Sawjian-B area, at least 80 displaced families from Chaprian and Karli-Dhok have rebuilt their homes behind the fence towards the Indian side. While the Pakistani military has occupied a part of the area, the villagers have completely abandoned their agricultural land and ancestral homes, which lie across the fence towards Pakistan.

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The Sarpanch of the area, Abdul Qayom Khan, told Frontline that at least 80 families that were displaced after the Kargil War could never go back to their ancestral homes, and they constructed new homes behind the fence. Owing to its vulnerable location, the village once again bore the brunt of the recent escalation in cross-border tensions. “For four days, shells rained down, and explosions rocked the area. Many homes were damaged, and livestock was killed,” he said, wondering whether peace would ever return to their lives. “The entire village took refuge in eight or nine underground bunkers, which saved us from the relentless bombardment.”

Weary of prolonged conflict, Poonch residents accuse successive governments of treating them as pawns, wavering between hollow promises of peace and a failure to act decisively.

Talking to reporters, Japneet Kaur asked: “What justice will we get?” Her father, Amreek Singh, died after a shell fired from across the border exploded at their home in Poonch city on May 7. “After Pahalgam, the government launched Operation Sindoor. Will they do the same for us?” Her question hangs in the air, unanswered. Others noted that Pakistan’s immediate breaches of the ceasefire have further eroded trust, reinforcing local scepticism about any assurances of lasting peace along the LoC.

For Rajiv Chuni, the ceasefire raises deeper concerns for the PoJK-displaced people denied refugee status. “Letting Pakistan keep our territory weakens national security and dishonours our soldiers’ sacrifices,” he said. “Most [of the people] killed in the recent shelling in Poonch were PoJK displaced; what message does that send? That they’re only alive to die unheard?