Kashmir: Everyone lives in Fear

1
The wife of Manzoor Ahmad Mir holds a photograph of her missing husband who was taken from his home by Indian soldiers following a dispute with a police official. © 2006 Robert Nickelsberg 44615
2
A Kashmiri man from Anantnag district who was picked up by Indian Army soldiers in 2004 under suspicion of being militant, shows two torture scars he received while in custody. © 2006 Robert Nickelsberg 44615
3
A Sufi shrine in Srinagar. © 2006 Robert Nickelsberg 44615
4
The mother of Mohammed Ashraf Bhat holds a photo of her ’disappeared’ son who was picked up by Indian securityforces from a Srinagar bus station on 6/22/2003 and never seen again. © 2006 Robert Nickelsberg 44615
5
The mother of Bilal Ahmad Sheikh, one of the three Kashmiri teenagers mistakenly shot and killed by Indian Army soldiers in Vilgam, weeps days after the shooting. © 2006 Robert Nickelsberg 44615
6
The renowned Islamia High School in Srinagar is reconstructed after an arson arrack by militants. The attack was a warning to the owner of the school not to negotiate with the Indian Government over Kashmir’s independence. © 2006 Robert Nickelsberg 44615
7
Noora Sofi holds photographs of her husband Abdul Rahim Sofi and son, Gawar Ali Sofi. Both were shot dead by militants inside their home. © 2006 Robert Nickelsberg 44615
8
Mohammad Ismali Dar describes the death of his brother, Mohammad Ramzan, who was mistaken for a militant and shot in an army ambush. The family received compensation for the killing. © 2006 Robert Nickelsberg 44615
9
The mother of Bashir Ahmad Mir, Mahuda, cries while recalling her son. Bashir joined an armed militant group in 1990 when he was fifteen years old and was arrested in 1994 by Indian security forces. He has never been seen again. © 2006 Robert Nickelsberg 44615
10
The wife of Abdul Rashid Hajam, Shafiqa, holds a photo of her ’disappeared’ husband. He was picked up by Indian security forces from the rural apple orchard where he was working and has never been seen again. © 2006 Robert Nickelsberg 44615
11
Indian paramilitary soldiers check the identification documents of Kashmiri men the day after an attack by suspected militants in the center of Srinagar’s business district, July 30, 2005. © 2006 Robert Nickelsberg 44615
12
Indian and Kashmiri policemen watch as shots break out following an attack by suspected militants in the center of Srinagar’s business district on July 29, 2005. © 2006 Robert Nickelsberg 44615
13
A day after an attack in the center of Srinagar’s business district on July 29, 2005, Indian paramilitary soldiers inspect a room where a suspected militant was killed. © 2006 Robert Nickelsberg 44615
14
A sufi shrine in Kashmir. © 2006 Robert Nickelsberg 44615
15
Indian paramilitary soldiers carry a dead comrade to an awaiting armored jeep following an attack by suspected militants in the center of Srinagar’s business district on July 29, 2005. © 2006 Robert Nickelsberg 44615
16
Teenagers in Vilgam peer out of a window four days after three boys were mistakenly shot to death by Indian Army soldiers during a wedding on July 24, 2005. © 2006 Robert Nickelsberg 44615
17
Armed Kashmiri police watch for a possible militant attack while a Kashmiri state government minister, right, speaks to villagers in Vilgam after Kashmiri boys were mistakenly killed by Indian Army soldiers. © 2006 Robert Nickelsberg 44615
Since 1989, the wails of family members mourning their dead have become ubiquitous to life in Jammu and Kashmir state. Kashmiris are trapped in an armed conflict between abusive Indian government forces and armed militant groups waging a brutal separatist struggle with the backing of the Pakistani government. Most Kashmiri families have lost a relative, friend, or neighbor in the violence. At least twenty thousand Kashmiri civilians have been killed (Kashmiri groups say that the number is much higher). Tens of thousands have been injured. Hundreds of thousands have been internally displaced, including some three hundred thousand Hindu Kashmiris. Approximately thirty thousand Muslim Kashmiris have fled to neighboring Pakistan as refugees, while thousands have crossed that same border to train as fighters. Ordinary, day-to-day life has been upended and degraded.
Region / Country