Srinagar, May 24 -- Poonch- Rahul Gandhi stood silent outside a broken home in Poonch on Saturday, listening to a woman recall how her sons, Zain and Zohaib, never made it to breakfast.

The two boys were among the 15 civilians killed when shells rained over this border district earlier this month, in one of the deadliest episodes of Indo-Pak escalation in recent years.

The Congress leader arrived mid-morning, unaccompanied by fanfare.

He walked through narrow lanes where homes still smelled of smoke and metal. At each stop, he sat with families, heard their stories, and asked about the things they needed most.

In his words, it was "a very big tragedy." In theirs, it was a life turned upside down.

"I spoke to the people, tried to unde...