July 30, 2025: According to a party leader, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will provide financial support for the education of 22 children whose parents were killed in Pakistani shelling along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district in May during the Indo-Pak conflict. Tari Hamid Karra, the head of the J&K Congress, told reporters in Rajouri that Gandhi had made the promise on his May 24 trip to Poonch, where he met families whose homes had been bombed between May 7 and 10. “Rahul Gandhi asked us to compile a list of school-age children whose parents had died, particularly those who were the primary breadwinners. We submitted a list of 22 children from Poonch district, and more may be added after further assessments,” Karra said.
Mohammad Akram, a father of six, was killed in Poonch on May 7 by Pak shelling. During his May 24 visit to Poonch, Gandhi promised to bring their concerns to the national level and urged the government to compensate those whose homes were damaged by the shelling. Party leaders say that the first installment for children's education will be released on Wednesday, when Karra and other senior leaders will be in the district. After the Indian armed forces carried out missile strikes on terror infrastructure across the border in May under Operation Sindoor in retaliation to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people, most of whom were tourists, Poonch district alone was responsible for 13 civilian deaths out of the 28 who died in Pakistani shelling and drone attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.