Rahul Gandhi to visit families affected by Pakistan shelling in Poonch tomorrow

Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will visit the families affected by Pakistan shelling in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district on Saturday, 24 May.

Congress leader and MP Jairam Ramesh said on X, “Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Shri @RahulGandhi will be visiting Poonch tomorrow, 24 May, to meet the families bereaved during the shelling by Pakistan very recently. Earlier, on 25 April, he had visited Srinagar where he met the injured people and other concerned parties in the barbaric terrorist attack in Pahalgam. He also met the lieutenant governor and the chief minister.”

Poonch, Rajouri, Baramulla, and Kupwara districts of Jammu and Kashmir suffered the worst damage to civilian lives and property due to heavy mortar shelling by Pakistan in retaliation for India’s targeting of terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Operations against terrorists were intensified after 22 April, when Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists segregated tourists on the basis of religion and killed 26 civilians, including 25 tourists and a local, in Baisaran meadow of Pahalgam.

The cowardly terrorist act outraged the entire nation. India launched precision-guided targeted attacks on terrorist infrastructure in Muridke near Lahore, Bahawalpur, Kotli, and Muzaffarabad in PoK. Pakistan responded by heavy mortar shelling on the Line of Control (LoC) and the International Border (IB) in J&K, targeting civilian facilities.

Around 200 houses and shops were destroyed in Pakistani shelling, while hundreds of border residents were forced to abandon their villages to move to safer locations.

The border residents have not fully returned to their homes yet as the security forces are still defusing unexploded Pakistan shells in Poonch, Rajouri, Baramulla and Kupwara districts.

India reached an understanding with Pakistan on the ceasefire, and the DGMOs of the two countries spoke on 12 June.

But, defence minister Rajnath Singh has made it clear that the understanding will be respected only as long as Pakistan does not allow any terrorist activity on its soil against India.

A five-member delegation of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Thursday visited Poonch district and expressed solidarity with the people of the region affected by the recent artillery and mortar shelling by the Pakistan Army.

The delegation, comprising MPs Derek O'Brien, Sagarika Ghose and Md Nadimul Haque; West Bengal , minister Manas Bhunia and former MP Mamata Thakur, visited Poonch on their second day of a three-day visit to J&K, which began on Wednesday from Srinagar.

During their visit, the delegation met the families of the victims, conveyed their condolences and assured the people of Poonch of their support during these difficult times.

Rajya Sabha MP Ghose said they had come to Poonch to assure the affected people that the entire Bengal and India stood with them.

"This is a journey of empathy. This is a journey of unity. We have come here to share the pain and sorrow of the people who have lost their family members and those who are injured," she told reporters.