Hotel, Radio, and Voice: Mark Tully's Mark on Kashmir

The legendary BBC broadcaster's death revived memories of Kashmir's tense radio and hotel years.

- Fiza Masoodi

Opposite Ghat No. 2 on Srinagar's Boulevard Road, a modest signboard reads Hotel Tully. It faces Dal Lake and a thoroughfare that once carried foreign correspondents, security convoys, tourists, and traders through a city at the center of a long discord.

In the late 1990s, the hotel name caught the eye without need for explanation. Passersby noticed, recognized it, and moved on. The connection felt obvious, almost unspoken.

Boulevard Road has long been Srinagar's most outward-facing stretch, lined with houseboats bearing English names and hotels that hosted journalists filing dispatches late into the night. During the worst years of violence, it remained one of the city's closest links to the outside world.

Hotel Tully stood there throughout, silently absorbing glances and assumptions. Its name resonated because a voice carrying the same name had already entered Kashmiri homes through radio.

Mark Tully's BBC reports cut through evenings of curfews, power cuts, and unease in the valley. Families leaned toward their radios, turning up the volume, each bulletin sparking discussion about the valley's troubles.

His name became part of the daily news, and a hotel bearing it felt like acknowledgment, since Mark Tully was already a household name.

During those years, people believed government distrusted him while the public trusted him. The idea circulated through markets and streets, growing stronger with repetition. The hotel's name fit naturally into that belief.

That familiar BBC voice, long taken for granted, fell silent on January 25, 2026.

Mark Tully died at a Delhi hospital at 90. The news travelled fast in the valley, and the signboard opposite Ghat No. 2 took on a nostalgic pull.

In the early 1990s, Naqash Sarwar, former director of horticulture, recalled evenings filled with anticipation.