Desperate crowds fought Saturday to board a special train ferrying people out of IIOJK from the worst fighting with Pakistan in decades. Baton-wielding policemen blew whistles to try and restore order as people — mostly poor workers from central and eastern India — furiously elbowed each other and hurled abuses to get on board. The train, sent by the federal government, took those lucky enough to secure a place to the Indian capital New Delhi, about 600 kilometres (400 miles) south of Jammu, free of charge. Karan Verma, 41, originally from Chhattisgarh in central India, has been a mason in Akhnoor near Jammu for two decades and thought of it as home. “There are loud explosions the entire night,” he said. “There is no choice but to leave.” Some people lifted babies and young children and flung them to family members who had managed to beat the crowd and board. “There should be more trains,” said Suresh Kumar, 43, from Madhya Pradesh state, dragging his brother away from a fight with another passenger. Nisha Devi, her three children and her husband could not get a space on the train to return to the distant eastern state of Bihar, their home province. “If I got on that train, it would have been like walking into a death trap with the children,” she said philosophically. Pakistan said it launched counterattacks on Saturday after India struck three of its air bases overnight following days of clashes involving fighter jets, missiles, drones and artillery. More than 60 civilians have been killed amid fears that the conflict will spiral into all-out war.