POONCH: Residents of the town in Indian-administered Kashmir worst hit by the deadliest fighting in decades with Pakistan trickled back on Sunday, a day after a surprise truce.
Over 60 people died in days of days of missile, drone and artillery attacks that came close to all-out war until the ceasefire, which was holding on Sunday despite early alleged violations.
Most of the dead were civilians and the majority Pakistanis.
On the Indian side, Poonch on the Indian-run part of divided Kashmir bore the brunt, with at least 12 people killed at 49 injured, according to officials.
They included 12-year-old Zian Khan and his twin sister Urwa Fatima, hit by an artillery shell on Wednesday as their parents tried to leave the town.
The majority of the 60,000-strong population fled in cars, on buses and even on foot, leaving only a few thousand to brave it out.
Tariq Ahmad arrived back on Sunday bringing back 20 people in his bus as signs of life and activity returned to Poonch’s streets.
“Most who fled are still afraid and will wait and watch to see if this agreement holds,” the 26-year-old driver told AFP at the main bus terminal.
“Luckily, I managed to pick up 20 people from nearby villages who wanted to check if their homes and belongings survived the intense Pakistani shelling.”
Poonch lies about 145 miles (230 kilometers) from Jammu, the second largest city in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Hazoor Sheikh, 46, who runs a store in the main market, was one of the first few people to reopen his shop.
“Finally, after days, we could sleep peacefully,” he said.
“It is not just me or my family but everyone around finally had a smile yesterday,” he added.
“I nervously returned a short while back to check on my shop,” 40-year-old Mushtaq Qureshi said.
“Our families and neighbors were all separated as people fled to villages or relatives’ homes for safety. But we are happy to be back today and to see each other again,” he said.
Qureshi had left his home with about 20 relatives.
“Buildings around our neighborhood were hit but luckily nothing has happened to my home,” he said.
Rita Sharma, 51, said she was really looking forward to seeing five children from her extended whom she had sent away for safety.
“They were the first to call yesterday after the (ceasefire) announcement and declared that they’d be back home by Sunday evening,” she said.
“We hope it stays peaceful.”
Hotel manager Subhash Chandar Raina also stayed put despite “the worst shelling in years.”
“I feel sorry for those who’ve lost lives and belongings but thank God for allowing us to return to our normal lives after the worst phase in the region for years,” the 53-year-old said.
Raina was one of only two hotel staff who stayed back as they felt traveling “was risky.”
Abdul Razzak, 50, remembers fleeing with four children and two other relatives on two motorbikes with nothing but their clothes.
“It was our worst nightmare... We’ve seen our people die around us, so none of us want a war,” Razzak said.
Hafiz Mohammad Shah Bukhari was skeptical.
“We are not entirely confident that this ceasefire agreement will hold, based on our experience over the years,” the 49-year-old said.
“Every time India has agreed to such an agreement, Pakistan has ended up violating it... It’s people like us, the frontier people, who end up suffering and losing everything.”
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India’s worst-hit border town sees people return after ceasefire
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India’s worst-hit border town sees people return after ceasefire
- Most of the over 60 dead were civilians and the majority Pakistanis
- Residents returned as an India-Pakistan truce was holding on Sunday
Japan prepares to restart world’s biggest nuclear plant, 15 years after Fukushima
NIIGATA: Japan took the final step to allow the world’s largest nuclear power plant to resume operations with a regional vote on Monday, a watershed moment in the country’s return to nuclear energy nearly 15 years after the Fukushima disaster. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, located about 220 km (136 miles) northwest of Tokyo, was among 54 reactors shut after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima Daiichi plant in the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
Since then, Japan has restarted 14 of the 33 that remain operable, as it tries to wean itself off imported fossil fuels. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa will be the first operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), which ran the doomed Fukushima plant. On Monday, Niigata prefecture’s assembly passed a vote of confidence on Niigata Governor Hideyo Hanazumi, who backed the restart last month, effectively allowing for the plant to begin operations again.
“This is a milestone, but this is not the end,” Hanazumi told reporters after the vote. “There is no end in terms of ensuring the safety of Niigata residents.”
While lawmakers voted in support of Hanazumi, the assembly session, the last for the year, exposed the community’s divisions over the restart, despite new jobs and potentially lower electricity bills.
“This is nothing other than a political settlement that does not take into account the will of the Niigata residents,” an assembly member opposed to the restart told fellow lawmakers as the vote was about to begin.
Outside, around 300 protesters stood in the cold holding banners reading ‘No Nukes’, ‘We oppose the restart of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa’ and ‘Support Fukushima’. “I am truly angry from the bottom of my heart,” Kenichiro Ishiyama, a 77-year-old protester from Niigata city, told Reuters after the vote. “If something was to happen at the plant, we would be the ones to suffer the consequences.”
TEPCO is considering reactivating the first of seven reactors at the plant on January 20, public broadcaster NHK reported.
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa’s total capacity is 8.2 GW, enough to power a few million homes. The pending restart would bring one 1.36 GW unit online next year and start another one with the same capacity around 2030.
“We remain firmly committed to never repeating such an accident and ensuring Niigata residents never experience anything similar,” said TEPCO spokesperson Masakatsu Takata. Takata declined to comment on timing. TEPCO shares closed up 2 percent in afternoon trade in Tokyo, higher than the wider Nikkei index, which was up 1.8 percent.
RELUCTANT RESIDENTS WARY OF RESTART
TEPCO earlier this year pledged to inject 100 billion yen ($641 million) into the prefecture over the next 10 years as it sought to win the support of Niigata residents.
But a survey published by the prefecture in October found 60 percent of residents did not think conditions for the restart had been met. Nearly 70 percent were worried about TEPCO operating the plant.
Ayako Oga, 52, settled in Niigata after fleeing the area around the Fukushima plant in 2011 with 160,000 other evacuees. Her old home was inside the 20 km irradiated exclusion zone.
The farmer and anti-nuclear activist has joined the Niigata protests.
“We know firsthand the risk of a nuclear accident and cannot dismiss it,” said Oga, adding that she still struggles with post-traumatic stress-like symptoms from what happened at Fukushima.
Even Niigata Governor Hanazumi hopes that Japan will eventually be able to reduce its reliance on nuclear power. “I want to see an era where we don’t have to rely on energy sources that cause anxiety,” he said last month.
STRENGTHENING ENERGY SECURITY
The Monday vote was seen as the final hurdle before TEPCO restarts the first reactor, which alone could boost electricity supply to the Tokyo area by 2 percent, Japan’s trade ministry has estimated. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who took office two months ago, has backed nuclear restarts to strengthen energy security and to counter the cost of imported fossil fuels, which account for 60 percent to 70 percent of Japan’s electricity generation.
Japan spent 10.7 trillion yen ($68 billion) last year on imported liquefied natural gas and coal, a tenth of its total import costs.
Despite its shrinking population, Japan expects energy demand to rise over the coming decade due to a boom in power-hungry AI data centers. To meet those needs, and its decarbonization commitments, it has set a target of doubling the share of nuclear power in its electricity mix to 20 percent by 2040.
Joshua Ngu, vice chairman for Asia Pacific at consultancy Wood Mackenzie, said public acceptance of the restart of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa would represent “a critical milestone” toward reaching those goals. In July, Kansai Electric Power, Japan’s top nuclear power operator, said it would begin conducting surveys for a reactor in western Japan, the first new unit since the Fukushima disaster.
But for Oga, who was in the crowd outside the assembly on Monday chanting ‘Never forget Fukushima’s lessons!’, the nuclear revival is a terrifying reminder of the potential risks. “At the time (2011), I never thought that TEPCO would operate a nuclear power plant again,” she said.
“As a victim of the Fukushima nuclear accident, I wish that no one, whether in Japan or anywhere in the world, ever again suffers the damage of a nuclear accident.”
Since then, Japan has restarted 14 of the 33 that remain operable, as it tries to wean itself off imported fossil fuels. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa will be the first operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), which ran the doomed Fukushima plant. On Monday, Niigata prefecture’s assembly passed a vote of confidence on Niigata Governor Hideyo Hanazumi, who backed the restart last month, effectively allowing for the plant to begin operations again.
“This is a milestone, but this is not the end,” Hanazumi told reporters after the vote. “There is no end in terms of ensuring the safety of Niigata residents.”
While lawmakers voted in support of Hanazumi, the assembly session, the last for the year, exposed the community’s divisions over the restart, despite new jobs and potentially lower electricity bills.
“This is nothing other than a political settlement that does not take into account the will of the Niigata residents,” an assembly member opposed to the restart told fellow lawmakers as the vote was about to begin.
Outside, around 300 protesters stood in the cold holding banners reading ‘No Nukes’, ‘We oppose the restart of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa’ and ‘Support Fukushima’. “I am truly angry from the bottom of my heart,” Kenichiro Ishiyama, a 77-year-old protester from Niigata city, told Reuters after the vote. “If something was to happen at the plant, we would be the ones to suffer the consequences.”
TEPCO is considering reactivating the first of seven reactors at the plant on January 20, public broadcaster NHK reported.
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa’s total capacity is 8.2 GW, enough to power a few million homes. The pending restart would bring one 1.36 GW unit online next year and start another one with the same capacity around 2030.
“We remain firmly committed to never repeating such an accident and ensuring Niigata residents never experience anything similar,” said TEPCO spokesperson Masakatsu Takata. Takata declined to comment on timing. TEPCO shares closed up 2 percent in afternoon trade in Tokyo, higher than the wider Nikkei index, which was up 1.8 percent.
RELUCTANT RESIDENTS WARY OF RESTART
TEPCO earlier this year pledged to inject 100 billion yen ($641 million) into the prefecture over the next 10 years as it sought to win the support of Niigata residents.
But a survey published by the prefecture in October found 60 percent of residents did not think conditions for the restart had been met. Nearly 70 percent were worried about TEPCO operating the plant.
Ayako Oga, 52, settled in Niigata after fleeing the area around the Fukushima plant in 2011 with 160,000 other evacuees. Her old home was inside the 20 km irradiated exclusion zone.
The farmer and anti-nuclear activist has joined the Niigata protests.
“We know firsthand the risk of a nuclear accident and cannot dismiss it,” said Oga, adding that she still struggles with post-traumatic stress-like symptoms from what happened at Fukushima.
Even Niigata Governor Hanazumi hopes that Japan will eventually be able to reduce its reliance on nuclear power. “I want to see an era where we don’t have to rely on energy sources that cause anxiety,” he said last month.
STRENGTHENING ENERGY SECURITY
The Monday vote was seen as the final hurdle before TEPCO restarts the first reactor, which alone could boost electricity supply to the Tokyo area by 2 percent, Japan’s trade ministry has estimated. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who took office two months ago, has backed nuclear restarts to strengthen energy security and to counter the cost of imported fossil fuels, which account for 60 percent to 70 percent of Japan’s electricity generation.
Japan spent 10.7 trillion yen ($68 billion) last year on imported liquefied natural gas and coal, a tenth of its total import costs.
Despite its shrinking population, Japan expects energy demand to rise over the coming decade due to a boom in power-hungry AI data centers. To meet those needs, and its decarbonization commitments, it has set a target of doubling the share of nuclear power in its electricity mix to 20 percent by 2040.
Joshua Ngu, vice chairman for Asia Pacific at consultancy Wood Mackenzie, said public acceptance of the restart of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa would represent “a critical milestone” toward reaching those goals. In July, Kansai Electric Power, Japan’s top nuclear power operator, said it would begin conducting surveys for a reactor in western Japan, the first new unit since the Fukushima disaster.
But for Oga, who was in the crowd outside the assembly on Monday chanting ‘Never forget Fukushima’s lessons!’, the nuclear revival is a terrifying reminder of the potential risks. “At the time (2011), I never thought that TEPCO would operate a nuclear power plant again,” she said.
“As a victim of the Fukushima nuclear accident, I wish that no one, whether in Japan or anywhere in the world, ever again suffers the damage of a nuclear accident.”
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