In the fierce exchange of fire, heavy mortar shelling in border villages forced inhabitants to flee in panic. Most fled empty-handed, leaving homes and livestock to trudge long distances to safety. In some cases, they had to climb over peaks of 13,000 feet in search of shelter.

Although shelling from across the border has been a regular feature for the people in these border areas over the past three years, it was only in April this year that Liaquat Ali Khan, joint secretary of the youth voluntary forum of Kargil, met the Prime Minister.

He demanded that refugees be shifted to safer places and given wages and allowances as are Kashmiri migrants. He also requested for analternate road link via Pahalgam in south Kashmir, which would be out of reach of Pakistani shelling. But the border clashes, which began in earnest by June, cast its long shadow on civilian lives--in the fervor of patriotism, the problems of the refugees remained unsolved.

The border hostilities have left 30,000 people displaced. The authorities have little experience in dealing with such a scale of refugees, and have been unable to cope with their rising numbers. There have been angry protests at the ``callous attitude'' of the government in providing relief and rehabilitation. Hordes of refugees have staged dharnas in Srinagar--the first on June 7--asking for quick relief.

When Pakistani troops withdrew, refugees from 22 border villages were hopeful of returning home. But intermittent shelling from across the border in Minji and Kargil continue to make their return impossible. ``More than 95 per cent people continue to be where they are. Some men do make efforts to go to their villages and see theirhomes and belongings, but they all return to the migrated positions by night,'' says Q A Akhoon, a junior works minister, whose family hails from a border district.

Most of the refugees now live in the cluster of villages between Minji and Panikhar. While the local administration provided space and other facilities, it was the local population that showed amazing hospitality.

Says Akhoon, ``The situation has created bonds among people. The villagers simply opened their doors and embraced their brethren.''

In conditions far from easy, the trauma is compounded by fears of an uncertain future. Displaced from their homes, the intermittent shelling is a clear sign that their hopes of going back home must remain on hold.

In crammed space, with no facility of staff and teaching aids, education for the children is another casualty for the refugees. Medical facilities are limited.

Squeezed into tiny settlements, people's tempers run high. They have to adapt to new patterns in daily life, forge newrelationships within families, with members of the camp and the local community.

By the middle of September, winter will start and the mercury will drop to minus 49 degrees Celsius. The refugees who were so far content living in the open under the sky are starting to panic. The work period in these mountain areas are limited to just four months in a year, and that is almost over.

With no money, food or home, there is growing anguish and restlessness among the refugees. Most say that even if the shelling stops completely, they will have to live with the fear of uncertainty and surprise attacks from across the border.

A majority say they are unwilling to go back to their homes leaving the relative security of their new houses. Even the 400 families from Leh who were accommodated in the run-down District Institute of Education and Training, living in very crammed conditions, are apprehensive of moving out since they have nothing left to which to go back.

People from the border areas which fall on theline of control, like Turtok, Thang, Thyakshi, Pachathang and Chalungpa, captured by India during the war of 1971, have also shifted to safer villages. The villagers had wanted to move to meadows high up in the mountains, traditionally used in the summer to graze cattle. However, they were denied permission by the army as movement of civilians in this vulnerable area would have compromised security.

The government has announced relief measures for refugees families, involving distribution of goods--nine litres of kerosene oil, two kilos of flour, seven kgs of rice and Rs 200 per head per month--and ex-gratia payments to victims of shelling or firing. Ex gratia relief for the loss of livestock has also been announced, but the government has yet to offer relief to the people who have lost their homes.

According to government officials, the state is already incurring a monthly expenditure of Rs 10,000,000 on the ex gratia relief payments to victims and/or their families.