Kashmir: Students struggle with trauma from air attacks

DW (English)

While schools have reopened in Kashmir following a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, students living along the Line of Control are still reeling from days of cross-border shelling and drone attacks.

Transcript

00:00When it started, we were in fear, in fear.

00:04We didn't understand what happened.

00:06When we saw that it was so much damage, it was freezing.

00:10Our studies were very bad.

00:14Habiba Riaz is a tenth great student.

00:18She lives in a border village in Uri, along the Line of Control,

00:23the de facto border that separates India and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

00:28On May 7th, the Indian military launched aerial strikes

00:32against targets in Pakistan-controlled territory.

00:36It was India's armed response to the killings of Hindu tourists

00:40in India-administered Kashmir on April 22nd.

00:45What followed was four days of tit-for-tat cross-border drone and missile strikes.

00:52When we sleep at night, the sun is open.

00:56When we sleep at night, we think that the sound of the people

00:59are going to fall in the eyes.

01:00The sound of the people are going to come again.

01:02Even though, if we close the door to the door,

01:05we think that it will start again.

01:06We are trying to run away.

01:07The fear and fear has been sitting in the same way.

01:11After days of escalating conflict, both sides agreed to a ceasefire on May 10th.

01:18While schools have reopened, Riaz says the fear that the shelling could start again at any moment still grips her.

01:26In this corridor, I was walking.

01:28As I was walking before, I was not walking before.

01:30Now I am not walking before.

01:31I have fear and fear.

01:33As we were walking before, I was walking with my friends.

01:37I was walking with my friends.

01:38I was walking with my life.

01:40I was walking with my life.

01:41I was walking with my life.

01:42But now we are totally different.

01:44There is no ceasefire.

01:46We should not talk about two countries.

01:48There is no ceasefire.

01:49It is necessary.

01:50Our studies have been very important.

01:53The morning assembly was before, but now it is not.

01:56Our activities were on Saturday.

01:59It is not now.

02:03The shells killed dozens on both sides of the line of control.

02:07Many homes were turned into rubble.

02:10This road is going to our school.

02:13This road comes to a place where the shells are falling.

02:16This is a place where we are walking from this road.

02:19We are going to our school.

02:21We are looking at this place.

02:23There is fear, fear and memories.

02:25There is a place where we remember again.

02:27What happened in the last 10 days.

02:28There is a loss.

02:29If it starts again,

02:31then our property can also go.

02:33Our property can also be lost.

02:35Our property can also be lost.

02:36Sheikh Tanweer, a father of four,

02:39is concerned about the psychological impact

02:41that shelling could have on children in the long term.

02:44The biggest challenge is because

02:47the growing child has been in the middle class

02:50to the big school,

02:51which is fair,

02:52which is fair,

02:53that the biggest challenge is

02:55that after shelling,

02:57how can we outcome that fair

02:59and how we have the opportunity.

03:00How can we have counseling

03:01that could not be in the border areas.

03:05If a child has been to school, you have to help the parents to take the school.

03:13Teachers say parents weren't even sending their children at first

03:17because no one knew when the situation might become worse again.

03:22It's a task to bring children back to the track.

03:26They have to teach children, involve them in games.

03:29They have to recover their mental state.

03:33After that, we will come back to the track.

03:39The cross-border shelling has made it difficult for teachers to teach and for the students to concentrate.

03:47I was talking yesterday.

03:48When I was giving my EBS class 4,

03:51there was a lot of firing here.

03:53There are camps that are close to here.

03:55I was also doing a drill.

03:56The kids were writing tests.

03:58They were standing there.

04:00There was no sound.

04:02They were talking.

04:03I was having to settle my children.

04:05We are not going.

04:06We are going.

04:07It's not going to happen.

04:08It's not going to happen.

04:09There's a little bit of opening.

04:10Some of them hear the door.

04:11They get up from their seats.

04:13They panic.

04:15They say, I'm probably going to be shelling.

04:17This trauma has been bad.

04:19The conflict between India and Pakistan poses a significant risk to regional stability.

04:27Days of cross-border strikes marked the worst period of hostility between the two nuclear-armed neighbors over the past decade.

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