This time it is neither war nor peace. What is it then? These are the questions haunting the border residents, who have once again been rendered homeless and forced to lead a miserable life.

Continuous shelling all along the border by the Pakistanis in the backdrop of the Kargil imbroglio has created a war like situation, resulting in serious implications. About 70,000 border villagers have fled from their homes for safety, leaving behind their main sources of income, their cattle, to fall victim to the stray bullets.

The scene at the make shift camps for migrants are the same all over. At Muthi High School, the migrants sit expressionless incramped, narrow school rooms, some squatting, others leaning against the wall, they talk in hushed tones. The migration has triggered off chain reactions and added to the miseries of the people, who otherwise have no choice but to live in the jaws of death.

For the past 50 years, the border residents have been undergoing this trauma, but now they are tired of this. Having witnessed three wars, these battle-hardened residents are this time a shaken lot. What has made them lose heart is not the ongoing skirmishes on border but the uncertainty that is looming large over their heads.

The villagers are worried as to how long they will have to sit like this in the camps. They feel that their `forced' stay in the camps is going to be extended if the tension on the borders takes the shape of a full-fledged war. The elderly recall that during the '65 and '71 wars they had to stay in such camps for almost a year and when they returned home after the war, their belongings had either been destroyed or gonemissing.

"Every time we have to start our lives afresh. During each migration we lost all our belongings," complains Kartar Chand of Kot Maria.