Jaran Walan Gali

There are days when shells & bullets whiz past your head. And there are days when everything is quiet. One eye over the shoulder is the key to survival & retaliation. Soldiers stand guard in Jaran Walan Gali, some 250 km from Jammu, on 23 May 2003 armed with a 30mm AGS-17 Plamya automatic grenade launcher. The photograph was taken a few days after the army announced it had destroyed 90 terrorist hideouts and killed over 60 militants in a counter insurgency operation in southern Kashmir, called Operation Sarp Vinash (Kill the Serpent).