10-05-2025
Recite Islamic verse or you're dead — the Kashmir massacre retold
Dawn breaks in Hapatnar, a remote village filled with walnut growers and pony owners.
Naushad Hussain, 28, a taxi driver, wakes early, slips out of the family house into the cool mountain air and heads off to work. It is April 22, a Tuesday, in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
The 30km drive to Pahalgam, a bustling tourist town framed by the Himalayas, takes about half an hour.
At home his brother Adil, 26, is still asleep. He works as a tour guide — and tourists wake up later.
At 9am, their cousin Nazakat Ahmad Shah, 28, a shawl seller, arrives in Pahalgam. He has recently returned to Kashmir for the summer. During winter, when tourist numbers drop, he travels round India, selling cashmere shawls and finding clients
