Srinagar, May 9 -- When the first shells landed just after sundown, Fakhar Din was inside with his children, finishing dinner. By midnight, his home in Baila village had collapsed around him.

"We had just enough time to run," he said, standing beside the wreckage of mud bricks and twisted tin that once formed his roof. "Everything is gone."

On the night of May 8, Pakistani forces fired a fresh wave of mortars across the Line of Control, targeting civilian areas in and around Poonch.

The attack came less than 24 hours after a previous barrage killed 15 and wounded over 40 people. This time, the shelling was worse, residents said - more frequent, more intense, and deeper into populated zones.

For the people of Poonch, it was another nig...