Graffitis outside the Jama Masid in Srinagar, Indian administrated Kashmir

Baglihar Dam , also known as Baglihar Hydroelectric Power Project, in the Indian administered Kashmir. This project was conceived in 1992, approved in 1996 and construction began in 1999. The project is estimated to cost  $1 billion. The first phase of the Baglihar Dam was completed in 2004. With the second phase completed on 10 October 2008, 

Graffiti on a wall of Pattan in Indian administrated Kashmir

Mansoor Ahmed Naikoo, 55 years old, Pattan.

“One day in 1990, the army came and asked all the men of the village to gather at the school. One major of the army asked me my name and brought me to a room where four soldiers were waiting. They removed my clothes, they tied my arms with ropes. They then tied a cloth on my penis and set fire to it. They then inserted a wooden rod in my anus. For an hour they repeatedly asked me ‘where were the weapons?’ People outside the room started to protest at the school against my detention. That is when they took me to my own house to repeat the same treatment. They forced me to drink around 5 litres of dirty water while sodomising me with the rod. They questioned me again and I repeated that I was a shopkeeper and that I had never held a weapon in my life. They took me to the next house and used an electricity wire to shock me all over my body. When we left the first house I saw that a young-man that they were questioning had died there. After throwing me on the floor one soldier stepped on my neck with his shoe and asked me to show him where the weapons were or he will suffocate me.

I could not breath or talk anymore and signalled to him with my foot. He released my neck so I could speak and repeat that I had nothing to do with the militants. One soldier took his helmet and started beating me with it on the chest. Another soldier asked him to stop the interrogation because I was nearly dying. One officer came to the room, they told him that they didn't find anything so they took me back to the school. The beating and torture lasted around 9 hours. At the school they were at least ten boys in handcuffs. As I couldn't stand anymore, the soldiers left me lying there on the floor. A few young guys helped me back home. There was a curfew that night so I couldn't get any medical treatment. My rectum was bleeding all night. In the morning my relatives came to my house and took me to the hospital. The soldiers tried to stop us but my neighbours and relatives protested and I finally could make it to a hospital in Srinagar. They kept me 40 days under treatment. I underwent major surgeries because my colon was ripped. After one month of being released from hospital, the infection came back. They operated on me again to remove a part of my colon. For 22 years my stool came out of a hole in my stomach.” 

Name withheld on request, Pattan.

“My brother Adil was 13yrs old. He had gone to the neighbouring village to see a pro-freedom demonstration when Indian forces opened fire to break the peaceful protest. Later my mother received a phone call from the hospital informing her that he was wounded. A few moment later we received another phone call, this time to tell us that he had been killed. The doctors said that my brother was dragged from the bed and shot twice in the neck and back by the military inside the hospital.” 

Nayeen Muhammed, 29 years old, Pattan.

“Before the celebration of Eid, I stepped out of the house to buy groceries. That is when an army patrol saw me. I felt a burn in my back and fell on the floor. I was shot. Then the patrol rushed to me and started beating me while I was lying on the floor. When they thought I was dead they left me there. Two weeks passed. I was still recovering when my brother was shot by the military while stepping out of the mosque after prayers.” 

Name withheld in Poshpora

“One night during the winter of 1991, the army came to our village. They asked all the men to come outside of the houses. We could see military all over the place. They took all the men into different spots of the village and tortured them. A group of soldiers came inside my house and raped me in front of my children. When they were done I was in a very bad condition but they installed a curfew that lasted four days where we couldn't leave our houses. Finally after seeking medical help, because of an infection, they removed my ovaries. Today I take antidepressant pills which cause me stomach aches.” 

Tarik Ahmed Ganaia, 42 years old, Palhalan

“Early one morning 2 armed men entered my house. They asked for food and sat there all day. They were militants. In the darkness of the evening they left. My family was stressed. The next morning in the first light, someone knocked on the door. My elder brother answered the knock; was the army and police. They asked us where were the militants. We told them what had happened and gave their description. They took me and my brother to the interrogation centre. There they put me naked in front of my brother and beat me with bamboo sticks on the legs. My brother begged the police officer to not beat me on the head because I was suffering from neurological problems. That's when they started to beat me on the ears, clapping their hands like a musical instrument. I was unconscious after an hour. The next day I woke up in the police hospital. I had head pain. Both my ears were swollen and my legs double their size. I was put under observation and suffered from internal bleeding. Since then I cannot hear anymore from my left ear.” 

Mass grave, Baramulla District.

The official account, related by the Indian and Jammu and Kashmir administration and security apparatus, states that the dead buried in the unmarked graves are unequivocally “foreign militants/terrorists.” The perception in Kashmir is different. Hundreds and thousands of people have lost a loved one -- a brother, a son, a father, a husband, with the latter leading to the prevalence of “half widows,” women whose husbands are missing but not confirmed dead.

Human rights organisations have repeatedly criticised the culture of forced disappearances in Kashmir, maintaining that a majority of those killed were targeted in “fake encounters” -- a term used to refer to the police or armed forces killing suspects when they are either in custody or are unarmed, and then claiming to have shot them in self-defence.

Stories of disappearances, encounters, death and violence characterises every day life in Kashmir. Here are some personal accounts from Kashmir. 

Army trucks on the highway between Jammu and Srinagar