Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Saturday visited Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district to meet families affected by the recent cross-border shelling by Pakistani troops. The region was among the worst hit during the four-day military confrontation between India and Pakistan.

During his visit, Rahul Gandhi interacted with grieving families who lost their loved ones and homes in the shelling. He described the devastation he witnessed, highlighting the pain and resilience of the residents.

“Today I met the families of those who lost their lives in Pakistan shelling in Poonch. Broken houses, scattered belongings, moist eyes and painful stories of losing loved ones in every corner – these patriotic families bear the biggest burden of war with courage and dignity every time. Salute to their courage,” Gandhi said in a post on social media platform X.

Expressing solidarity with the victims, he assured them that their voices would not go unheard. “I stand strongly with the victim families – I will definitely raise their demands and issues at the national level,” he added.

Gandhi visited the homes which were hit by Pakistani shelling in Poonch and met the families of those who died during the four-day military conflict. He met the family of Zoya and Zain, 12-year-old twins who died in cross-border shelling by Pakistan.

He also visited Poonch’s Gurudwara Shri Guru Singh Sabha, a religious site damaged by shelling.

‘Study hard, make friends’ – Rahul Gandhi tells Poonch students

During his visit to a school in Poonch, Gandhi met the students and addressed them. He said, “Now, you have seen danger and a little bit of a frightening situation, but don’t worry, everything will come back to normal. Your way of responding to this problem should be that you study and play really hard and make a lot of friends in school.”

The four-day military conflict between the two countries erupted after India targeted as many as nine terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir under ‘Operation Sindoor’ on May 7. The operation was launched to avenge the victims of the devastating terror attack in Pahalgam on April 22 in which 26 people were killed, most of whom were tourists.

Pakistan targeted civilian areas in border towns of India during the conflict, resulting in the death of 13 people in Poonch district alone.

People in Poonch, which is close to the Line of Control (LoC) had to evacuate from their homes and seek refuge in government-run relief camps due to firing and shelling by Pakistan.

This is Gandhi’s second visit to Jammu and Kashmir since the Pahalgam terror attack but first since Operation Sindoor. Earlier, Gandhi visited Srinagar on April 25 to meet those injured in the terror attack.

With PTI, ANI inputs.