Fear has once again taken hold of thousands of civilians living along the Line of Control (LoC) and the International Border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir, as renewed cross-border exchanges of fire threatens to undo the fragile peace brought by the 2021 ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan.

The latest round of hostilities follows the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, which claimed 26 lives and reignited tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. Since then, heavy firing has erupted across five border districts — Baramulla, Kupwara, Rajouri, Poonch, and Jammu — displacing families, shuttering schools, and forcing authorities to reopen emergency shelters.

“We thought those terrifying nights were over,” Mohammad Rafiq, a 58-year-old farmer from Uri in Baramulla district, told DH over phone. “But now we’re back to sleeping in our clothes, with one eye on the door and our ears tuned to every sound. It feels like war is always just one step away. The silence we had after 2021 is gone. Now, we don’t know if we’ll wake up to the sound of birds or bombs.”

The 2021 ceasefire pact, once seen as a rare diplomatic breakthrough, had ushered in an unprecedented period of calm along the volatile border. But locals say the peace was fleeting. The resurgence of violence has brought back haunting memories of the pre-ceasefire years, when border villages endured frequent shelling, civilian casualties, and mass displacements.

“In the past four years, we had started rebuilding our lives,” said Rukhsana Begum, a mother of three from Tanghdar in north Kashmir’s Kupwara. “My children had gone back to school. Our fields were green again. But now they cry at every gunshot. We’ve started digging bunkers again.”

“The ceasefire feels like a broken promise,” she said. “We don’t want war — but we’re always the ones who pay the price when tensions rise.”

The 3,323-kilometre-long India-Pakistan border, including the 740-km stretch of the LoC, remains one of the most militarised zones in the world. While the Indian Army has reinforced its presence in vulnerable areas, residents are pleading for more — demanding safe shelters, relief supplies, and a political solution to end the cycle of violence.

With the ceasefire unravelling and the LoC turning volatile once more, the people of Jammu and Kashmir’s border belt remain caught between diplomacy and devastation — uncertain of when, or if, peace will return.