Photos: Life in the Valley, Caught Between Light and Shadows
Aunts and relatives of Umer Bhutt mourn his untimely death. Credit: Shome Basu
At the tarmac, from the windows, one can see men in khaki and olive fatigues, with INSAS and AKs and heavy bullet-proofed jackets protecting their chests; eyes poking out of their helmets, searching and examining every corner.
Even at first glance, Srinagar feels quite foreign. Even the architecture looks more like that of Central Asia, and so do the Kashmiris. This feeling is further intensified when an undercover cop walks over to me at the luggage belt and asks if I were a foreigner.
Nestled between the Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range, Kashmir was, is and always will be a paradise. Sadly the views it affords comes at a price. With boundaries that stretch across two hostile countries – India and Pakistan – Kashmir has a tragically tortured past and present.
With over 7,00,000 army, police and paramilitary personnel, the Kashmir valley maintains the world’s highest concentration of soldiers, outnumbering all other conflict zones including Afghanistan, Burma and Iraq. Sentiments of fear and ferocity engulf the region.
This photo story is an anthology of the many facets of everyday life in Kashmir, that I captured over the course of my decade-long coverage of this ill-fated paradise. I focused my lens on the disruption produced by curfews and ceaseless protests on the daily lives of the Kashmiri people.
What follows is a compilation of what I witnessed, be it an eerie curfew day, a dreadful silent night, raging protests, the death of an innocent bystander, or children playing cricket. These photos offer a window into the terror and dread that fill Kashmiri eyes and capture those unfortunate daily events that have created a conflict zone amidst serenity. Civilians and those in uniform alike, all live in a climate of fear. My photographs aim to speak for a people who are rarely heard.
‘We want freedom’ written on the walls by the pro-Kashmir independence protesters during the height of riots that resulted in numerous arrests and many deaths. But separatist sections of the population continue to participate in sporadic incidences of violence and organised protests. Credit: Shome Basu
Girls during recess at a school in Bomai in Sopore. A RR camp that lay adjacent to it was moved in 2009, leaving them feeling much more relaxed. Credit: Shome Basu
Nahyeeda Kayoom mourns the death of her 17-year-old brother Omer Kayoom Bhat in Srinagar. Credit: Shome Basu
Aunts and relatives of Umer Bhutt mourn his untimely death. Credit: Shome Basu
Girls in hijab learn Urdu at a school. The teachers are mostly men. Credit: Shome Basu
Smell of death lingers in the air as Tantrey’s family mourns the death of a beloved at their home in Sopore. This is a hub of militancy with stray encounters between the terrorists and the security forces claiming many an innocent life. Credit: Shome Basu
Atiqa is another half-widow. She is a mother of three daughters. Her husband used to work for the State Electricity Board as a linesman. One night, in the year 1994, some men in army fatigues took him for questioning. He has not been seen since then. Neither his body has been recovered nor has he been found in any of the Indian prisons. Atiqa’s daughters are in their teens and have grown up without a male member in the family. There are around 10,000 such men missing from the Valley. Credit: Shome Basu
This man does not want to be named. He is an ex-militant. After his jail sentence, he now works as an intelligence agent for the security forces. His life is not smooth, but not as bad as the other militants who do not believe in the Indian constitution, he says. Credit: Shome Basu
Marked men pelt stones towards security forces. Once in a while journalists get hurt and have to be hospitalised. Credit: Shome Basu
A stone pelter. Credit: Shome Basu
Tantre, a young businessman from Bomai, suffers from hyperglycaemia, hypertension and anxiety. His brother was gunned down by the Indian Army on suspicion of being a militant. He has not got over the loss. Credit: Shome Basu
A young girl looks suspiciously at the camera. The people in the Valley are fearful of the security forces and the terrorists alike. Life of innocent civilians is very difficult, caught between the devil and the deep sea. Credit: Shome Basu
It’s not only the civilians who got injured, security personnel get ambushed too.. Credit: Shome Basu
Shades of Kashmir by Shome Basu. Foreword by Happymon Jacob. B/w documentary reportage
New Delhi: Niyogi Books, 2015. Price: Rs.1,495
