India, May 12 -- Sanjeev Sharma, a resident of the border town of Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), returned home with his family on Sunday after four days, only to find the first floor of their house damaged by the cross-border shelling and drone attacks from Pakistan.

His family had fled to Surankote, a nearby town between Poonch and Rajouri, after the shelling intensified on May 7, hours after Indian armed forces launched Operation Sindoor targeting nine terrorist targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in retaliation to the April 22 Pahalgam attack that claimed 26 lives.

"We left in a hurry, grabbing whatever we could as the shelling intensified. People were terrified. There were 12 of us crammed into a single car, ...