URI: President A P J Abdul Kalam yesterday shared light moments with quake-affected children and urged adults to be courageous as he wound up his first visit to Jammu and Kashmir since last month’s killer earthquake.

Kalam yesterday visited Uri, one of the places worst hit by the October 8 earthquake that left some 1,400 people dead in Indian Kashmir. On Saturday he toured Tangdar, which was also hit hard by the quake.

Amid heavy rain and near freezing temperatures, Kalam met about 300 children under a tent in Uri, 100km northwest of the state summer capital Srinagar.

Kalam shared jokes with the children and asked them what they wanted to become when adults.

Some said doctors, others engineers and a few said they wanted to become scientists like him. Kalam was the father of India’s nuclear missile programme.

“It was great to meet him,” said student Nazia Yusuf. “I will remember this meeting for ever.”

Kalam also visited Urusa village along the Line of Control — the de facto border that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

“The president met us and assured us all possible help,” said Abdul Rehman, a resident of the village which was flattened by the quake.

On Saturday Kalam praised the people of Kashmir for their courage during the earthquake and promised them full government support.

“I congratulate the people of Tangdhar for standing brave and courageous,” the president said in his address to the people in the town of Tangdar, 170km northwest of Srinagar.

“I appreciate your strength and determination,” he told a group of villagers assembled in a tent set up by the army.

The site of the small public meeting was sealed by barbed wires and fighter jets flew overhead while Kalam was in Tangdhar. Everybody entering the venue was frisked for arms. –  AFP