By Anto Akkara
Bangalore, India, May 12, 2025 /
10:40 am
A Catholic school and convent in India came under shelling from Pakistan military forces last week, with three students killed in the town of Poonch close to the Pakistan border, as fighting between the two countries’ militaries broke out before ending quickly over the weekend.
“One shell fell near our Christ School campus at Poonch, killing a twin brother and sister. The siblings were our students,” Jammu Bishop Ivan Pereira told CNA. The Jammu Diocese covers the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir.
“Another shell fell over the convent of the Carmelites of Mary Congregation. But it damaged only the water tank and solar panels. The school has been closed and the nuns have been moved to a distant convent,” Pereira said.
“Now the priests, nuns, and laypeople are engaged in arranging safer places for the fleeing people and arranging them night shelters,” he added.
Indian security forces launched aerial assaults against what they said were nine terrorist centers inside Pakistan early on May 7. The attack left 31 dead.
The government blamed Pakistan for allegedly supporting terrorists active on the Indian side of Kashmir, including the reported April 22 mass killing of 26 non-Muslim male tourists in the Pahalgam valley of Kashmir.
Following the Indian assault, Pakistani security forces intensified ongoing shelling in border areas, especially in the vulnerable Poonch township, located only eight miles from the border.
“The two students who died were hit by splinters from shelling when they were moving out to flee the area with their parents after their house was hit by a shell,” Father Shijo Kanjirathingal, the principal of the Christ School in Pooch, told CNA.
“A third student from our school was hit on the head by splinters in a moving vehicle,” the priest said.
“The shelling was very intense [on Wednesday morning] and shells hit the houses near the school compound. Though no shell hit our school buildings, a lot of glass panes have been shattered from splinters,” Kanjirathingal said.
“Thank God, nobody was injured in our compound, which houses over two dozen staff including 16 teachers,” said the priest, who belongs to the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate congregation.
“To ensure their safety, all the resident staff hailing from outside the state have been moved out. Our second Christ School closer to the border also has been shut and staff were evacuated. We used the school bus to move the people,” the priest said.
With the situation worsening and Pakistan vowing “retaliation” to Indian attacks, the government evacuated thousands of people from the villages along border areas as 18 people were killed amid Pakistani shelling.
Yet the two countries announced a cessation of hostilities over the weekend, with the conflict ending abruptly after just a few days of fighting. The agreement appeared to be holding into Monday morning.
India and Pakistan have fought three bitter wars over the snow-capped Kashmir region in the Himalayas. The area was divided between India and Pakistan during the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 into Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-majority India, ending more than a century of colonial British rule.
The latest trigger for the worsening tension was an April 22 terrorist attack on tourists in the snow-capped Pahalgam tourist area in which 26 non-Muslims were killed.
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Among 26 tourists shot dead by the Muslim militants was Susil Nathaniel, a Catholic who was executed in front of his wife and children reportedly for failing to recite a Muslim couplet.
Bishop Thomas Mathew of Indore in central India presided over the April 24 funeral of Nathaniel, describing the 57-year-old insurance company officer as a “double martyr” who laid down his life “for the nation and for the Catholic faith,” UCA News reported.
Pope Leo XIV, meanwhile — in his first Regina Caeli address at St. Peter’s Square on Sunday — hailed the cessation of hostilities announced by both countries over the weekend.
“I rejoice at the recent peace made between India and Pakistan,” the pope said, adding that he hoped for a lasting accord.
Anto Akkara is a journalist writing from Bangalore, India. He is a regular correspondent with the National Catholic Register. Besides international reporting, Akkara has written books and produced documentaries telling the stories of the martyrs of Kandhamal. He has recieved the St. Titus Brandsma Award for journalism.
