The emptiness that assails Rameez and Urusa Khan as they walk through the iron gates of their single-storey home in Poonch’s Chaktroo town is pervasive. It slips into their evening tea, haunts their favourite corners, and follows them as they visit the graves of their 11-year-old twins Zoya and Zain — both killed in last year’s cross-border shelling in Poonch during Operation Sindoor . “They would open the gates for us when we came home from work,” says Rameez, a government teacher, like his wife Urusa. “We’re now simply passing through life.” Zoya and Zain, who were born 5 minutes apart and died within minutes of each other on May 7, 2025, were among the 14 people killed in shelling in Poonch between that day and the next. According to government data, 65 people were injured in the shelling and 598 houses damaged. On April 20-24 this year, many of the families here relived those scary moments and the loss of their loved ones when the administration carried out a mock drill.…