SRINAGAR: In the remote border village of Hajinar in north Kashmir’s Karnah, joy turned into devastation just a day before a young bride’s wedding. Amid relentless cross-border shelling, Nazir Ahmad Mir watched his years of toil and savings go up in smoke as his home was reduced to rubble.
Mir had been preparing for the wedding of his daughter, Bisma Nazir, scheduled for May 10. But with his house now in ruins, everything he had lovingly arranged—the trousseau, jewellery, clothes, and furniture—has been destroyed.
“There is nothing left,” Mir said, his voice breaking. “The dreams I had for my daughter’s wedding, I built them piece by piece. Now there’s only dust.”
The shelling, which triggered panic across Karnah, left the family with no shelter and no possessions. The loss is not just material but deeply emotional, say neighbours.
“We had all been looking forward to the wedding,” said Sajad Ahmad, a resident of the village. “The preparations had been completed. But what happened was not just a financial blow—it was the collapse of a father’s hopes.”
Nazir, the only breadwinner in the family, has made a heartfelt appeal to the authorities for help. “I have no means to begin again,” he said.
The incident has renewed concerns over the vulnerability of border communities in Kupwara district, where civilians’ lives continue to be upended by violence beyond their control. (With KNS inputs)
