'Under an Invisible Lock': In Post-Pahalgam Kashmir, Locals Live and Survive Silently |
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Pahalgam/Shopian: Every day at the crack of dawn, Ishfaq Nazeer’s ears, conditioned to awaken to the azaan that echoes from the local mosque, respond just as before. Nazeer, a university student in Kashmir’s Shopian district, rises at the call, washes up and heads to the mosque with his mother’s specific instructions in mind: “After your prayers, go to the baker’s, bring me girdeh (a local bread) and head straight home. Don’t discuss politics with strangers.”
Her words follow Nazeer every day, just like the call to prayer.
Nazeer’s mother’s fears are not unfounded. In April, an encounter in Arhama resulted in the death of Ganderbal resident Raashid Ahmad Mughal. After his family called it a ‘fake encounter’, a magisterial inquiry was ordered into the killing by security forces.
In January, many mosques across Kashmir were asked to fill out forms listing the names of attendees, their phone numbers and institutional and financial details, a process that left clerics feeling unsure about how the state now views Islamic spaces. In March, the Lieutenant Governor’s administration of Jammu and Kashmir terminated three government employees for alleged anti-national activities.
Journalists in the valley have also been facing increased policing.
In November 2025, explosives – reportedly evidence related to the blast near Red Fort in New Delhi – detonated while they were undergoing forensic investigation in Nowgam police station. And in August that year, the Union government banned several books on Kashmir, accusing its authors of spreading “secessionism”. Police even raided bookshops and disrupted a literary festival to enforce the order.
Also in August 2025, at least 250 charity-run Kashmiri schools were taken over by the Union government. And in June, a government schoolteacher in Srinagar was terminated from his job after a background check flagged a distant relative as an alleged anti-India rebel, something the teacher says he had never known about.
Residents of Kashmir describe an increase in the frequency of police summons and background checks, a continuous process of........