Kashmir residents stockpile essentials amid fear of imminent Pakistan-India conflict

Residents in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir are racing against time to stockpile food and essentials as tensions between Pakistan and India escalate, raising fears of imminent conflict.

As a standoff between the two countries starting late April continues to escalate, Pakistan carried out a second missile test in three days on Monday, and India ordered several states to conduct security drills. Communities near the Line of Control, the de facto border that divides the disputed region of Kashmir between the two South Asian neighbors, are bracing for potential conflict.

In the shadow of military escalation, people in Azad Kashmir are stockpiling food and necessities. The local government has launched a massive operation to rush supplies to villages most at risk.

"We have stockpiled large quantities of wheat, lentils, sugar, rice, and oil," said Shahid Ali, a shopper.

"The government has said that anything could happen at any time, and with fears of war looming, I came here to buy whatever essentials I can afford, some wheat and a bit of oil," said Muhammad Saleem, a local resident.

Traditionally, remote and snowbound areas stock flour for winter. But with threats of cross-border escalation looming, the Pakistani government is now expanding storage even in accessible zones, relocating supply hubs away from exposed areas.

"We have allocated a billion-rupee emergency fund and launched an intensive operation to stock at least two months' supply of wheat flour and medicines across the entire Line of Control belt," said Deewan Ali Khan Chughtai, minister of Azad Kashmir.

As diplomatic efforts struggle to lower tensions between the two nuclear-armed rival nations, for families there, readiness has become a way of life, not just for winter, but for potential conflict.

India blames Pakistan for the April 22 attack that killed 26 civilians at a prime tourist location near the resort town of Pahalgam in the restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, a claim Pakistan strongly denies.

Kashmir residents stockpile essentials amid fear of imminent Pakistan-India conflict

Kashmir residents stockpile essentials amid fear of imminent Pakistan-India conflict

Kashmir residents stockpile essentials amid fear of imminent Pakistan-India conflict

Kashmir residents stockpile essentials amid fear of imminent Pakistan-India conflict

The death toll from a landfill collapse in the central Philippine city of Cebu has risen to eight by Monday morning as search and rescue operations continued for another 28 missing people.

The landfill collapse occurred on Thursday as dozens of sanitation workers were working at the site. The disaster has already caused injuries of 18 people.

Family members of the missing people said the rescue progress is slow, and the hope for the survival of their loved ones is fading.

"For me, maybe I’ve accepted the worst result already because the garbage is poisonous and yesterday, it was raining very hard the whole day. Maybe they’ve been poisoned. For us, alive or dead, I hope we can get their bodies out of the garbage rubble," said Maria Kareen Rubin, a family member of a victim.

Families have set up camps on high ground near the landfill, awaiting news of their relatives. Some people at the site said cries for help could still be heard hours after the landfill collapsed, but these voices gradually faded away.

Bienvenido Ranido, who lost his wife in the disaster, said he can't believe all that happened.

"After they gave my wife oxygen, my kids and I were expecting that she would be saved that night because she was still alive. But the night came and till the next morning, they didn't manage to save her," he said.

Death toll in central Philippine landfill collapse rises to eight