1.
GV Villagers with belongings and children riding donkeys on road
0.16

2.
GV Shepherds driving sheep along road
0.49

3.
SV PAN..Bullock cart with belongings along road
0.43

4.
SV PAN..farmer drives tractor with belongings
0.51

5.
CU Ferozepore milestone off road
0.54

6.
GV Bus drives past milestone
1.00

7.
GV Crowded Ferozepore street scene and roadside stall (2 shots)
1.14

8.
GV Idle porters outside railroad station
1.18

9.
LV Idle brick kila
1.22

10.
GV Stack of bricks
1.25

11.
GV Deserted tube well
1.28

12.
GV & SV Locked doors of village house
1.36

13.
CU TILT TO GV.. recently ploughed field
1.42

14.
GV PAN..field of damaged crop
2.00



Initials ES. 2325 ES. 2345



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: While tension grows along the Pakistan-Indian border with troops of both sides massing in preparation for a possible confrontation, civilians living in frontier villages have begun moving out. Crops lie unattended, homes and sometimes complete villages are deserted, and unknown but large numbers of civilians move as far from the border as possible. VISNEWS cameraman Jagdish Kapoor recently visited the area, and he sent back this film.

SYNOPSIS: India... and as tension grows with between it and its neighbour, Pakistan, villagers living along the crisis frontier are beginning to flee their homes before the tension flares up into a major confrontation. Taking what few belongings they can, the villagers desert their homes and livelihoods as troops of both countries mass along the troubled border, and make for the nearest town which offers safety.

Ferozepore, a market town a little distance from the border, offers such safety. Some border refugees stop here; others continue further. But to people from small communities the number of people in Ferozepore offers sufficient safety.

But along the border, there is little such activity. Railway stations lie idle; cottage industries lie deserted; the streets have few people along them; and homes are locked up. There is no obvious panic -- merely a prudent desire to avoid trouble before it appears.

Crops, too, lie idle and unattended while the crisis moves nearer to flashpoint. The Pakistan Government denies aggression; the Indian Government claims it is acting defensively. But the border villagers are taking no chances -- it is better, they believe, to be alive and hungry than not to be alive at all.