'It broke my heart' Caught in crackdown after Kashmir attack

Caught in crackdown after Kashmir attack

- Aakash Hassan and Hannah Ellis-Petersen Delhi

When the news broke in April of the bloody attack in Kashmir's popular rolling valleys of Pahalgam, in which gunmen shot dead 25 tourists and a guide, Ahmad felt sickened.

In a region so familiar with bloodshed and the loss of innocent lives, the gut-wrenching stories that emerged – of newlyweds being killed, of victims singled out and targeted for their religion – brought back his own memories of grief and loss growing up in Kashmir.

“It broke my heart,” said Ahmad, who asked to use a single name. “I understand the pain of seeing death around you. That night, I was too distraught to eat or sleep.”

The next day he awoke to a summons by the police counter-insurgency unit. Knowing that a worse fate awaited him if he refused, he went down to the station. Ahmad had no known connection to any of the militants alleged to have carried out the killings, and lived more than 50 miles (80km) from the site where the attack happened, but he was detained for four days.

“No reason was given,” he said. “They confiscated my phone, and searched through it. Some days, they interrogated me about militants, though I have no involvement or information. Every time I denied knowing anything, they slapped me or beat me with a stick.”

Over the past week, amid a huge operation to track down the militants, a climate of fear has gripped Kashmir as more than 2,000 people have been detained – many pulled from their beds at night – and held under draconian security and anti-terrorism laws.

The attack was the deadliest on civilians in India in more than two decades, and with the three main suspects still on the run, the authorities have taken to harsh measures in response. The Indian government denies any abuses.