"All women, children, cattle and most younger men moved back to safe shelters in 1999 and 1971," Hardev said, referring to two of the worst outbreaks of fighting between the neighbours.
"We couldn't go to our fields," he said, adding that it was only the village's elderly men who "stayed back to ensure that our homes were not looted".
Relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours have plummeted after India accused Pakistan of backing the deadliest attack in years on civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22.
Islamabad has rejected the charge, and both countries have since exchanged gunfire across the de facto frontier in contested Kashmir, diplomatic barbs, expelled citizens and ordered the border shut.
Residents of the frontier villages in India's Punjab state say nothing has changed on the ground yet -- but there is a growing anxiety about the coming weeks.
"The barbaric attack on the civilians in Kashmir was tragic, but no matter what, the lives lost are not coming back," Hardev said.
"Any war would push both our countries back by many years, and there would be an even bigger loss of human lives."
A border fence patrolled by troops slices in two the farmlands near Daoke, home to around 1,500 people.
Gurvinder Singh, 38, recalls the last major conflict in 1999.
Fighting then took place far from Punjab -- in the icy Himalayan district of Kargil -- but the sun-baked fields around his village did not escape unscathed.
"Mines were planted on our fields, and we could not work," Gurvinder said.
He hopes that, if the bellicose statements issued by leaders on either side do turn into military action, his village will be left alone.
"We feel that the actual conflict would happen only in the Himalayas," Gurvinder said, adding that his village is "normal right now".
- 'Not just us' -
In the nearby frontier village of Rajatal, between the Indian city of Amritsar and Lahore in Pakistan, residents remember the days when the golden farmland stretched without restriction.
The frontier was a colonial creation at the violent end of British rule in 1947 which divided the sub-continent into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.
Sardar Lakha Singh's memory stretches back to before the fence was erected.
"We used to go to the open ground on the other side to graze our cattle," 77-year-old Lakha said, sitting about 100 metres (328 feet) from fences topped with barbed wire.
Farmers can obtain special passes to go close to the border, including beyond the fence but still within Indian territory.
But they must always be accompanied by a soldier.
"We can't go there whenever we want," said farmer Gurvil Singh, 65. "This reduces the time we get to work on our fields".
Panic gripped border villages last week after rumours suggested farmers would be stopped from accessing fields too close to Pakistan.
Sikh elder Sardar Lakha Singh advised younger villagers to accept their fate and not to worry.
"Whatever is going to happen will happen anyway," he said.
"We didn't know when the 1965 war suddenly started, same in 1971 when the planes suddenly started crossing the border," the grey-beared farmer added.
"So, if it happens again, we don't need to worry in advance."
Gurvinder Singh, 35, said he tried to take the lesson to heart.
"It would be a high-tech war, and not an invasion or a battle of swords like the past," he said.
"When the situation worsens, it would be for the entire country -- and not just us."
India, Pakistan and the Kashmir attack: what we know
New Delhi (AFP) April 29, 2025 -
Long-troubled relations between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan have rapidly worsened since a deadly attack in Kashmir targeting tourists that New Delhi blames on Islamabad, accusations it has firmly rejected.
One week since the April 22 attack in which 26 men were killed, the deadliest on civilians in the disputed Himalayan territory in a quarter of a century, analysts worry furious rhetoric on either side may escalate into military retaliation.
- What happened? -
Gunmen attacked Indian holidaymakers enjoying picturesque Pahalgam, in a lush valley beneath snowcapped Himalayan peaks.
Survivors said the gunmen separated the men, asked several about their religion, and shot them at close range.
All 26 killed were Indian nationals, except one from Nepal. Most were Hindus. One was a Kashmiri Muslim who gave horse rides for tourists.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed to pursue the killers "to the ends of the Earth".
- Who were the attackers? -
Indian police have identified two Pakistani nationals among the three fugitive alleged gunmen. The other is Indian.
Police say they are members of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), meaning the "Army of the Righteous", designated a terrorist organisation by the United Nations.
No group has claimed responsibility.
India accuses LeT of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, when 10 Islamist gunmen carried out a multi-day siege of the country's financial capital killing 166 people.
New Delhi last week accused Islamabad of supporting "cross-border terrorism".
Pakistan has denied any role in the Pahalgam attack, rejecting Indian accusations as "frivolous" and saying it was open to a "neutral, transparent and credible" investigation.
- What is the issue in Kashmir? -
Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947. Both claim the territory in full.
Rebels in the Indian-run area have waged an insurgency since 1989, seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan.
India has an estimated 500,000 soldiers deployed permanently in the territory.
India accuses Pakistan of funding the rebels and aiding their training. Islamabad denies the allegation, saying it only supports Kashmir's struggle for self-determination.
- How has India responded? -
New Delhi has also issued a raft of punitive diplomatic measures.
Those include suspending a water-sharing treaty, the closure of the main border crossing with Pakistan and downgrading diplomatic ties.
India has ordered all Pakistani nationals to leave the country, with the exception of remaining diplomats, by April 29.
Security forces have conducted more than 2,000 detentions and interrogations, according to a police source.
The military also destroyed at least nine houses belonging to suspects, fueling the anger of some local officials and a section of the population who denounced it as "collective punishment".
India has also banned more than a dozen Pakistani YouTube channels for allegedly spreading "provocative" content.
- How has Pakistan responded? -
Pakistan hit back with tit-for-tat measures, including expelling New Delhi's diplomats, and cancelling visas for Indian nationals with the exception of Sikh pilgrims.
It also closed its airspace to Indian airlines.
Islamabad also warned it would regard any attempt by India to stop the supply of water from the headwaters of the Indus River as an "act of war".
Pakistan's defence minister has claimed to have "reinforced" its military to repulse any Indian aggression.
- What will happen next? -
Some fear that military action is now imminent.
The two countries have traded small arms fire across the Line of Control, the de facto border in contested Kashmir, for five consecutive nights.
The worst attack in recent years in Indian-run Kashmir was at Pulwama in 2019, when an insurgent rammed a car packed with explosives into a security forces convoy, killing 40 and wounding 35.
Indian fighter jets carried out air strikes on Pakistani territory 12 days later.
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