Rajouri, May 8 -- Residents in border villages in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri are returning to their homes on Thursday morning after they were forced to flee their homes in panic, seeking safety in the wake of the intense shelling by Pakistan on Wednesday.

The Pakistan Army has resorted to heavy artillery firing along the Line of Control in retaliation for India's Operation Sindoor, which targeted nine terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

According to the villagers who returned today, the shelling has caused significant damage to residential properties, with people fleeing the areas along with their whole families as well as livestock.

"We left our homes in fear, and so we fled in the night during the shelling....