Srinagar, May 10 -- PhotosbyFaisal Khan

Days after the shelling stopped, Uri still smells like war. The border town is scorched and silent, its air thick with smoke, gunpowder, and the sting of burnt timber.

Amid the wreckage, a few residents are beginning to return. They're quiet, cautious, and unsure of what they'll find in the ruins of home.

"It smells of fire and fear," said Roshan Kumar, standing where his shop once stood in Lagama.

Kumar returned from Baramulla, stepping over cracked tiles and burnt signboards, searching for anything that could be salvaged.

"We built our lives brick by brick. It took minutes to lose everything."

On the night of May 8, Pakistani artillery pounded Uri in what many call the most intense cross-bor...