For decades, these Tibetans had made Kargil a ``home away from home'', selling readymade garments to make a living in this remote district of Jammu and Kashmir. ``There was no place like Kargil in the entire country. No violence, no crime despite the gun culture engulfing all of Kashmir,'' said Tsering, who has lived in Kargil for more than a decade now.

Tsering, who had fled from Chinese aggression in Tibet, is all praise for the land and its people. ``We had found our lost home in Kargil. Kargilis are amazing, they never let us feel (as) outsiders on their land. What else does a refugee need and aspire for?'' he said. ``But now we may have to leave this place as well.''

Kargil has a full-fledged `Tibetan Refugee Market' inthe heart of this mountain town, but most of the shops are closed as majority of the shopkeepers fled after shells landed nearby. There are, however, a few Tibetan stores still open in the main market, mostly run by women.

``I have decided not to flee and am mentally prepared to be even killed by a shell,'' said Phimp Lhamo, who fled Tibet in 1959 at the age of 13. Lhamo had been moving from place to place in India for years before she ultimately reached Kargil in 1987 and opened a small readymade garment shop, while her husband joined the Army. ``I would also have thought of moving to a safer place if this shelling was a matter of few weeks. It seems unending,'' she said.

Why don't many of these Tibetan refugees want to leave Kargil? ``Hum kab tak bhagtay rahenge (How long will we carry on fleeing?),'' said T Dorji. ``Miseries seem to be an inseparable part of our life now. Let us face them,'' he said.

Dorji (35) fled Tibet in 1985, leaving behind his old parents and other close relatives in asmall village in the north. He has never spoken to them as there are no phones there and the only mode of communication was through post. And as Dorji kept moving from place to place, his relatives found it very difficult to reach him. ``After years of wandering, I had finally felt good to have a permanent postal address here. But I fear it was not to be,'' he said.

These Tibetan refugees live here entirely by their own wits, because the State laws bar outsiders from obtaining employment in the Government. They cannot pursue a University education or sit for any competitive examination. Ironically, they cannot even claim Government relief in this period of crisis. The reason is that they don't have the requisite State Subject certificate and, as such, are not legal residents of Jammu and Kashmir.

Some of the refugees are young men who have learned Urdu, Hindi and English and managed to obtain teaching jobs in private schools in Kargil. Several of them migrated here from Srinagar, where a large number ofTibetans have been living in Eidgah and Hawal localities since 1950s.

``I came here in 1992 soon after completing my graduation. Though I had qualified the exams with excellent marks, I could not join the University. I was forced to join this private school on a meagre salary as there was no other option,'' said Irshad Ahmad, a Tibetan who migrated to Kargil from Srinagar in search of employment and is now working in Pioneer Public School.

Mohammad Iqbal, another refugee whose parents were among the first to leave Tibet after Chinese occupation, settle down in Srinagar and later married a local girl from Zanaskar. He has established himself in Kargil, where he is the principal of a local private school.

``Many of us have been born here. If the Government has problems giving us permanant residentship of the State, they should at least allow us to pursue higher education, compete for professional courses and take up jobs,'' Iqbal said.

The people of Kargil, he said, have always been sympathetic to theTibetans but the current crisis has been a painful reminder that in many ways, they are still outsiders. ``At least, the local Kargil refugees have someone to complain to,'' he said. ``We have nobody.''