Following a ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan, the intervening night of Sunday and Monday remained peaceful across Jammu and Kashmir, including areas along the Line of Control and International Border. The Army reported no incidents of firing or shelling, marking the first such night of calm in 19 days.
00:00Now, the night remained largely peaceful across Jammu and Kashmir and other areas along the international border.
00:06No incidents have been reported marking the first calm night in recent days.
00:12So, peace prevails in the valley overnight.
00:19These are visuals we're getting just after the conclusion of Operation Sindhur.
00:26No firing, no shelling reported in Jammu and Kashmir.
00:30It's been a turbulent last few days for Jammu and Kashmir, but now peace is now making its way back to Jammu and Kashmir.
00:40There was no firing, no shelling reported, no drones also, as was the case in the last couple of days.
00:47But those are images that we got this morning of peace prevailing in Jammu and Kashmir.
01:00The restoration of normalcy process has begun in the bordering areas of Jammu and Kashmir.
01:06We are here in Surankot town, a small town in a punch district.
01:10It has never been affected by shelling or any such kind of attack by Pakistan.
01:16But a couple of days ago, this area also came under attack when the drones were targeting other cities, other towns, other residential areas of Pakistan.
01:24And since now there is an agreement of ceasefire between two nations, all it is restoring the normalcy.
01:30The people, those who left that town, this town had become ghost town, are gradually restoring its peace, routine life.
01:37As people started coming back to the town, we see the vehicular movement started, the shops started, the commercial establishment started, public transport has started, people have started gathering, the law and order taking its place, police forces, everyone alert in the city.
01:51And that's explained why this normalcy was important, essential for people of this area, being totally adjacent to the town.
02:00Many of these places, because of the safety reason, had went uphill towards in their villages, have now started coming back to.
02:06And since we see last night, there has not been any ceasefire violations in the bordering areas in Punch district, all across this belt from Jammu city to Punch.
02:16And that also ensures people that probably this will be the beginning of their new normal life.
02:22However, there is a sense of apprehension as their people lack faith on Pakistan, whether it will continue to commit on its word and it will not violate the ceasefire agreement.
02:33But for now, it's wearing calm, their life is coming back on track in Punch district.
02:38In this small town, Surankot, with Sanjay Kumar, I'm Ashutosh Mishra for India Today.
02:41It was a peaceful night in parts of Jammu and Kashmir.
02:49There's been a lot of turbulence, a lot of turmoil in parts of Jammu and Kashmir.
02:54But people could walk freely this morning.
02:57There were no blasts that were heard.
03:00There was absolute peace that was observed this morning.
03:03There was no shelling, no firing that was reported at all.
03:06And a sense of normalcy seems to be creeping back in Jammu and Kashmir.
03:12The valley is breathing a sigh of relief after seeing a lot of bloodshed over the last couple of weeks.
03:20A torrid time there for the locals.
03:22But we're happy that they are now able to get back to normal routine with there being the first instance of no ceasefire violation taking place last night.
03:38Ashutosh is joining me for more on this.
03:40Ashutosh, we just played out your report of how there seems to be a sense of normalcy that's now coming back.
03:46Tell us where you are at the moment, how have things really changed since the time you filed that report.
03:53And have you been able to speak with the people?
03:55What's the confidence like, especially after this one night of there being no ceasefire, there being no firing, no ceasefire violation, no drones that were seen in the sky.
04:06What do people on the ground feel?
04:07Relief, if the one word that explains the situation is relief.
04:14The people are breathing now.
04:16Many of these bordering areas, people had gone to their bunkers, were staying in their bunkers.
04:21In fact, the Punch town, which is right behind me at a certain distance, had become a ghost town.
04:26Because Punch was, remember, one of the worst affected area and there were the number and maximum casualties of the innocent civilians.
04:33Because in Punch, being topographically, Pakistan bunkers having a little advantage, were constantly firing on the residential area.
04:40We have seen how the innocent children near their school were killed.
04:44So now we see this could be the day when we expect people to starting back.
04:48In fact, I was just coming from Surankot and a minute ago, that report that you saw was from Surankot, which is the next town of Punch City in the Punch district.
04:58And remember, even in their past 1971-1999, there were barely any such instances when the shelling was literally targeting the Surankot town,
05:05which is believed to be one of the most safest area in this bordering district.
05:09But here we see after the attack that had also become a ghost town.
05:12We were staying in the hotel.
05:13The hotel itself came under attack.
05:15We could see that those sprinters, those sharp nails were targeting certain parts of these structures.
05:20Most of these people evacuated, went to the upper hills and their villages in the remote areas because that was believed to be the safer one.
05:27Now we see gradually the vehicular movement started, commercial activities started, shops are open and people have started coming back.
05:34Now you see on the road, this road is headed towards the Punch City.
05:37For the last couple of days, the road was totally deserted when people started fleeing to the safer areas, to Jammu and other parts of Jammu and Kashmir.
05:46This is the beginning of the restoration process.
05:48However, the biggest apprehension and concern in the minds of the people are that they cannot trust Pakistan.
05:54Looking at the history and particularly the bordering areas, the Punch, remember, has been seeing one of the worst ceasefire violation and very frequent ceasefire violations.
06:02Of course, the Indian Army, Indian Armed Forces have been responding very tough to the Pakistani whenever they've violated ceasefire.
06:08But this kind of escalation, now it is de-escalating.
06:12Now we see the situation restoring normalcy.
06:14The people still are not able to trust Pakistan whether this country will maintain the words that it has promised to maintain the ceasefire for this agreement.
06:24And if we yet again become so styled for the civilians, that will be a broader concern in the minds of the people.
06:29But for now, it's a beginning, it's a new dawn.
06:31We see the people coming back to life.
06:33The normalcy has gradually started restoring.
06:37The moment has started, people have started going back to their town.
06:40We are also headed to the Punch City.
06:42What I'm hearing, the Jammu Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is also likely to visit Punch.
06:46We will take a stock of the situation.
06:48All we can only hope and, you know, as long as hope is alive, remember, Akshay, that is the strength of the human being that during every such crisis,
06:57because ultimately caught in the crossfire are the innocent civilians that we see, how they were targeted by the Pakistan.
07:04But now it's a time to, you know, gather back.
07:07People have started going back to their houses.
07:10We are also headed to Punch.
07:11We will bring you more ground reports from Ground Zero in Punch.
07:15Appreciate you joining us, Ashutosh, and sharing all those details with us.
