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Dubai: Over the last 48 hours, Naeem Raja has not slept for even a minute.
The heightened tension between India and Pakistan has had a direct effect on the 36-year-old Dubai resident, whose family lives literally in the line of fire.
With his house situated along the Line of Control between the two countries — in the Kotli Khuiratta sector in Pakistan-administered Kashmir — Raja and his family of five have been bearing the brunt for years.
“I got a call from my wife as soon as the fighter planes started flying over my house,” recalls Raja, who was informed about the latest developments by his wife Fauzia. “My children were petrified and crying as the air raid sirens went off.”
The children were inconsolable, he says.
“Within a few minutes I lost contact with them [wife and children] for a good couple of hours,” says Raja, who has been working in Dubai since 2005 as an electrician and driver.
“Those two hours were the worst,” Raja said.
“You feel so helpless — you just don’t know what to do.
“We are here [living abroad] for our families, trying to earn a living, and there is no feeling worse than fearing for the life of your loved ones and their well-being,” Raja said.
He recounted how all he did in the next few hours was to frantically keep calling his wife’s number repeatedly.
“She must have got a thousand missed calls and messages when the mobile lines got restored. Alhamdulillah just to hear her voice and talk to my children was a huge relief,” Raja said, choking with emotion.
He has two sons — Mohammad Jassim, 8, and Mohammad Kassim, 3 — and a 4-year-old daughter, Alia.
“These children have seen a lot, and the war mongers on both sides — India and Pakistan — will not understand what we have to live through at the border, Raja said.
“I worry about not just the future of my children, but their lives at present.”
He said he feared for their well-being every moment.
“It’s impossible for me to concentrate on my work,” he said. “I cannot even be bothered with eating.
Raja said he had witnessed the unrest, “From the time I was born, all this hatred”.
“But what can we do, I don’t have the resources to move my family to another place.
“With great difficulty, saving every penny, I managed to construct the four walls of my house.”
He said it had taken him another few years before he could put a concrete roof over that house.
“And now, I could lose everything that I call home,” says Raja, who desperately wants to fly out to be with his family.
“There is so much tension and nobody knows what is going to happen next, I want to be with them in this moment.
“My wife is a brave woman and she told me over the phone not to worry, but I know how quickly things can change there.”
At the time Raja spoke to Gulf News, there were no flights to Pakistan as the country’s airspace had been closed.
“So all I can do is wait,” said Raja, who urged both nations to talk the language of peace.
“Trust me, we at the border have seen it for years now. So many lives have been lost … it’s a terrible feeling. Most of the people in both countries do not even know how it feels like when bombs are falling near your house.”
