Pallanwala: As mortar shells rained on a nondescript Gigriyal village here, 15-year-old Surinder Kumar risked his life and returned home from a makeshift camp miles away to collect his books that he could not pick up while fleeing to safety.
Kumar, Class X student from the frontier Gigriyal village in Pallanwala sector, along with his family members, had to hurriedly abandon his house and flee to a nearby safe camp after the Pakistani army resorted to “unprovoked” firing post the surgical strikes on terror launch pads in PoK on the intervening night of September 28-29.
“Soon after shells started landing on our village, we had to leave our houses in a hurry. I could not even pick up my schoolbag,” he said, adding he could not sleep the whole night and next day early morning, he decided to walk back home from the camp and bring back his schoolbag.
“...I had to walk on foot for several kilometres. Though I was stopped by the army and when I told them that I want to bring my schoolbag, an officer helped me,” he said.
As he was back home, there was sudden bangs of mortar bombs and rattle of guns, forcing him to take cover, along with others who had returned to the border hamlet to feed their cattle. For Kumar, it was a mission accomplished as he now sits in a makeshift classroom in the government school in Khour, which has been converted into a safe camp by the authorities.
