Shruti Sharma tearfully hugged her family goodbye and fled her home near the contested border in Kashmir with her three children on the first night of India and Pakistan's worst conflict in decades.

She returned home on Wednesday to a rapturous welcome from her mother-in-law and husband after fearing they would be killed by Pakistani strikes and that her house would be destroyed.

"I never thought I would return to a home that was still intact," the 37-year-old school teacher from Poonch said.

The house is a patchwork of brightly painted rooms, built gradually as the family expanded. A second floor is underway but far from complete.

Tens of thousands of people living near India's contested frontier with Pakistan were forced to flee as both countries launched deadly attacks and counter-attacks over four days, starting May 7.

But many are returning after the nuclear-armed neighbours agreed to a ceasefire on Saturday.

Poonch, a frontier town in Indian-administered Kashmir that was one of the worst-hit in the attacks.

Sharma's home, in a narrow lane hemmed by tightly packed........

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