Jammu: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday visited Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district to meet the families affected by recent shelling from Pakistan. Expressing solidarity with the victims, he assured residents that “everything will go back to normal” and encouraged students to “study hard, play harder, and make lots of friends in school.”
Gandhi made these remarks during a visit to Christ School, where he met students grieving the loss of two classmates—12-year-old twins Urba Fatima and Zain Ali—who were killed in the shelling. The twins had moved to Poonch just two months ago to be closer to their school.
Poonch has been one of the worst-affected areas in Jammu and Kashmir due to indiscriminate shelling from across the border. The escalation followed India’s retaliatory Operation Sindoor, launched in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. Indian strikes targeted terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). While interacting with the students, Gandhi, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, said, “Right now, you may feel a little bit of danger, a little frightened, but don’t worry—everything will go back to normal. Your way of responding to this should be to study really hard, play really hard, and make a lot of friends in school.”
Two students at Christ School recalled how friendly the twins were and how they used to play and study with them.
Gandhi also walked through narrow lanes to visit homes damaged in the shelling and interacted with affected families. He later visited the Singh Sabha Gurdwara and the SGPC headquarters to meet bereaved families.
Outside the gurdwara, a local man approached Gandhi and questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence on the Poonch incident. The man expressed hope that Gandhi would raise their concerns at the national level.
Gandhi also visited the family of Vihaan Bhargav and the Jamia Zia-ul-Uloom seminary, where he met affected students and the family of Maulana Kari Mohammad Iqbal.
Speaking to the media, Gandhi described the situation as a “huge tragedy,” stating, “Many people have died, and there is widespread damage to property. I will raise the issues discussed with the residents of Poonch at the national level.”
Later, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), Gandhi wrote, “Today, I visited a temple, gurdwara, and madrassa affected by Pakistani shelling in Poonch. Here, people of every religion live together and suffer together. This is Poonch—this is Hindustan—where there is harmony, unity, and patriotism.”
“Those who try to divide and break us will never succeed—we will always remain united and respond strongly. Jai Hind,” he added.
This was Gandhi’s second visit to Jammu and Kashmir since the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack.
