Gunmen fatally shot at least seven people working on a strategic tunnel project in Indian-controlled Kashmir and injured at least five others, officials said on Monday. Police blamed militants who have been fighting against Indian rule for decades for the “terror attack” at a camp for construction workers near the disputed region’s resort town of Sonamarg. No rebel group immediately claimed responsibility. Kashmir gets largely powerless government after 5 years Police said at least two gunmen fired “indiscriminately” at officials and workers associated with the construction, leaving two dead on the spot. At least 10 others were taken to hospital, where five more died. The attack came shortly after workers returned to their lodgings on Sunday night. There was no immediate independent confirmation of the attack. The dead included five non-local laborers and officials, one Kashmiri worker and a Kashmiri doctor. Reinforcements of police and soldiers launched search operations in the area to nab the attackers. Omar Abdullah, the region's top elected official, condemned the attack in a post on social media platform X, calling it “dastardly & cowardly.” A key Kashmiri resistance leader said he was “deeply saddened by the outrageous killings.” “Another grim reminder of the unending cycle of violence and uncertainty we are suffering for decades,” Mirwaiz Umar Farooq wrote on X. Hundreds of people, mostly non-local laborers, are working on the ambitious tunnel project that aims to connect the Kashmir Valley with Ladakh, a cold desert region that is isolated for half the year because of massive snowfalls. Experts say the tunnel project is important to the military, which will gain significantly improved capabilities to operate in Ladakh. The strategically important region shares de facto borders with Pakistan and China, and Indian and Chinese soldiers have been engaged in a military standoff there since 2020. Both countries have stationed tens of thousands of soldiers there, backed by artillery, tanks and fighter jets. Sunday’s attack was the second attack on a non-local worker in the region since a largely powerless local government was sworn into office Wednesday, following the first local elections since India stripped the region of semi-autonomy five years ago. On Friday, body of a worker from eastern Bihar state, riddled with bullet wounds, was recovered from a maize field in southern Shopian district, police said. They blamed militants for the killing. Kashmir has witnessed a spate of killings, many targeting workers from other parts of India, since 2021. Police say the killings, which have also included local Muslim village councilors, police officials and civilians, have been carried out by anti-India rebels. India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety. The nuclear-armed rivals have fought two of their three wars over the territory since they gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947. Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country. India insists that Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.

Leaders of Kashmir’s biggest political party were sworn into office Wednesday to run a largely powerless government after the first local election since India stripped the disputed region of its special status five years ago. National Conference leader Omar Abdullah will be the region’s chief minister after his party won the most seats in the three-phased election. It has support from India's main opposition Congress party, although Congress decided not to be a part of the new government for now. The vote was Kashmir's first in a decade and the first since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government scrapped the Muslim-majority region’s long-held semi-autonomy in 2019. The National Conference staunchly opposed the move, and its victory is seen as a referendum against the Modi government's changes. Kashmir will remain under New Delhi's direct controlLt. Gov. Manoj Sinha, New Delhi’s top administrator in Kashmir, administered the oaths of office to Abdullah and the five members of his council of ministers in a ceremony under tight security at a lakeside venue in the region’s main city of Srinagar. Some of India’s top opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi of the Congress party, attended. However, there will be a limited transfer of power from New Delhi to the local government as Kashmir will remain a “union territory” — directly controlled by the federal government — with India’s Parliament as its main legislator. Kashmir’s statehood would have to be restored for the new government to have powers similar to other states of India. India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety. The nuclear-armed rivals have fought two of their three wars over the territory since they gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947. Modi congratulated Abdullah and promised to work closely with him and his team. Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi, a parliamentarian from Kashmir and a National Conference leader, said the new setup in Kashmir “will act both as a government and as an opposition” as it will oppose policies of Modi's party while also strive to “reclaim” the region’s rights. “These policies have harmed the state, such as the revocation of Article 370, which stripped us of the rights we enjoyed. The government will deliver effective governance while fighting for the rights of the state,” he said. Tight restrictions on media and civil rightsKashmir’s last assembly election in 2014 brought to power Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, which for the first time ruled in a coalition with the local Peoples Democratic Party. T he government collapsed in 2018, after the BJP withdrew from the coalition and New Delhi took the region under its direct control. A year later, the federal government downgraded and divided the former state into two centrally governed union territories, Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir. The move — which largely resonated in India and among Modi supporters — was mostly opposed in Kashmir as an assault on its identity and autonomy amid fears that it would pave the way for demographic changes in the region. Indian-controlled Kashmir votes in final phase of polls to elect local government The region has since been on edge with civil liberties curbed and media freedoms restricted. Like on election days, authorities on Wednesday limited access of foreign media to the oath ceremony and denied press credentials to most journalists working with international media, including The Associated Press, without citing any reason. In the recently concluded election, the National Conference won 42 seats, mainly from the Kashmir Valley, the heartland of the anti-India rebellion, while the BJP secured 29 seats, all from the Hindu-dominated areas of Jammu. The Congress succeeded in six constituencies. Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country. Many in Indian-controlled Kashmir plan to vote this time to deny Modi total control India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict. Calls to restore Kashmir's statehoodExperts say the new government, stripped of all the essential powers, would face a daunting task to fulfil its election promises against huge public expectations to resist the 2019 changes and the federal government’s tight control. Praveen Donthi, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, said the region’s political vacuum of the last few years will not vanish with the polls alone. “The Modi government should build on it by restoring full statehood and empowering the government,” said Donthi. “Otherwise, it will intensify disaffection and is a set up for failure.” Modi and his powerful home minister, Amit Shah, have repeatedly stated that the region’s statehood will be restored after the election, without specifying a timeline. However, they vowed to block any move aimed at undoing the 2019 changes but promised to help in the region’s economic development. For the new chief minister, meanwhile, it's going to be a tightrope walk. “As a pro-India politician at the helm of this powerless administration, Omar Abdullah knows his limitations,” Donthi said. “He would be looking at his job as a buffer to moderate the worst instincts of New Delhi, but he would be clutching at straws."

Enjoying the unparalleled beauty of nature cannot be measured by any monetary value. However, everything in the world comes with a price, tourism is no exception. Though travelling costs are getting higher day by day, Bangladeshi tourists can visit overseas within a tight budget with proper planning and right information. Let's explore some popular international tourist attractions to visit with 10,000 taka. 10 Overseas Places to Visit from Bangladesh with a Budget of BDT 10,000 Cherrapunji This city, which is also called Sohra, is situated in the East Khasi Hills of Meghalaya. Notable attractions here include Mawsynram, the Double Decker Root Bridge, Mosmai Cave, and Mokdok View Point. Foreign visitors are drawn to enchanting waterfalls like Nohkalikai Falls, Thankharang Park, Mosmai Falls, Kalikai Falls, Rainbow Falls, Krangsuri Falls, and Seven Sisters Falls. To reach Sohra, travelers must take a train from Dhaka to Sylhet and then a bus to Tamabil. The minimum train fare from Dhaka to Sylhet is around BDT 400, and the bus journey from Sylhet to Tamabil costs BDT 35. Read more: 10 Most Affordable Destinations in Indonesia: Winter retreats on a budget Upon reaching Tamabil, complete Bangladesh immigration and cross-border checking at Indian customs. Subsequently, a taxi or minibus will leave for Shillong through Dauki Bazaar. Cherrapunji is a bit further, past the Wardslake gate of Shillong. For budget accommodation, homestays in Naingriat village can be arranged, with room rents for 4 people ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500, approximately equal to BDT 1,330 to 2,000 (Rs 1 = BDT 1.33). The cost of food can range from Rs 160 to Rs 200 (approx. BDT 215 to BDT 266) per person per day. All in all, one can travel from Dhaka via Shillong to Cherrapunji and back to Dhaka in 3 days for around 8 to 9 thousand taka. Read more: Best Asian Alternatives to the Maldives: Affordable Island Getaways Delhi Delhi, the Indian capital on the banks of the river Yamuna, retains its popularity among travelers due to its historical significance. Jama Masjid, Qutub Minar, Chandni Chowk, India Gate, Red Fort, and Emperor Humayun's Tomb are among the city's prominent sightseeing spots. Dhaka residents can reach Delhi affordably by first taking a bus to Kolkata. A non-AC coach will cost around BDT 890 to BDT 900 per person. From Kolkata's Howrah, they need to take a train to Delhi, with a non-AC sleeper costing approximately Rs 650 to Rs 700 (close proximity to BDT 865 to BDT 931). Opting for a tour agency's sightseeing package, which typically costs Rs 300 to 500 per person (hovering near BDT 399 to BDT 665), is recommended. The average daily cost for food is Rs 390 (roughly BDT 519). Double-bed rooms in Paharganj can be found for Rs 500 to Rs 650 (approx. BDT 655 to BDT 865). Read more: Shopping in Malaysia: What to Buy, Where to Buy from Shimla The capital and largest city of Himachal Pradesh in North India is known as the Queen of Hill Stations. Places to visit in the picturesque city include Mall Road, The Ridge, Summer Hill, Viceroy Lodge, St. Michael's Cathedral, Himachal State Museum, and Jakhu. Budget visitors must first come to Kolkata from Dhaka by the ways mentioned earlier. A minimum of BDT 1,100 will be spent here along with the immigration process. After that, the explorers have to go to Howrah station in Kolkata as before. From there, the Kalka Mail train will take them to Kalka, for which the ticket price will be around Rs 710 (about BDT 945). Toy Train fare for Kalka to Shimla is Rs.50 (close to BDT 67). A room in Shimla can be rented for Rs 1,000 (near BDT 1,330), and food per day can cost Rs 194 (almost BDT 258) per person. Read more: Lawachara National Park Travel Guide: Evergreen forest in northeastern Bangladesh

As India prepares to host a meeting of tourism officials from the Group of 20 in the disputed region of Kashmir, authorities have deployed elite commandos and stepped up security in the region's largest city. The meeting will be the first significant international event in Kashmir since New Delhi stripped the Muslim-majority region of semi-autonomy in 2019. Indian authorities are hoping the meeting will show that the controversial changes have brought "peace and prosperity" to the region. Since the 2019 changes, the city, known for rolling Himalayan foothills and exquisitely decorated houseboats, has become a major domestic tourist destination. Hotels have been mostly booked out for months. Kashmir has also drawn millions of visitors, who enjoy a strange peace kept by ubiquitous security checkpoints, armored vehicles and patrolling soldiers. Also Read: Indian troops kill 2 rebels in Kashmir in ongoing operations For the G20 meeting, the city has spruced up its commercial center and roads leading to the convention center on Dal Lake, while police have increased security even further, placing a massive security cordon around the site. On a recent Wednesday, gun-toting naval commandos in rubber boats mingled with tourists in canary-yellow gondolas. Paul Staniland, a political scientist who studies South Asia at the University of Chicago, said the G20 meeting is "in line with Indian government policy to symbolically project normalcy and stability in Kashmir," and is unlikely to herald a change in policy. ALso Read: India revives civil militia after Hindu killings in Kashmir "The meeting is good and it could boost tourism," said college student Mufeed Hilal. "But we also want to see the Kashmir issue resolved. That is our basic problem." ___ REGIONAL NEIGHBORS AND UN HUMAN RIGHTS EXPERT CRITICIZE KASHMIR MEETING Pakistan, which controls a part of Kashmir but, like India, claims the entire territory, has slammed New Delhi for holding the meeting in Srinagar. Speaking on the sidelines of a recent Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting in India, foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said the choice of location showed India's "pettiness" and was a "show of arrogance to the world." Also Read: 2 kids among 6 people die in Kashmir village attack: Police India's foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, dismissed the Pakistani minister's comments, saying that he was not going to debate the issue "with a country which has nothing to do with the G20," referring to the fact that Pakistan is not a member of the group. The G20, made up of the world's largest economies, has a rolling presidency with a different member state in charge of the group's agenda and priorities each year. India is steering the group in 2023. China also criticized India's plan to hold the meeting in Srinagar. "China firmly opposes holding any form of G20 meeting in disputed areas and China will not attend such a meeting," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters at a daily briefing Friday. Last month, China skipped another G20 meeting held in the disputed region Ladakh, where Indian and Chinese soldiers are locked in a bitter military standoff high in the mountains after 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers were killed in a hand-to-hand melee in 2020. A U.N. human rights expert on Monday said the meeting would support a "facade of normalcy" while "massive human rights violations" continue in the region. "The government of India is seeking to normalise what some have described as a military occupation by instrumentalising a G20 meeting and portray an international seal of approval," said Fernand de Varennes, the special rapporteur on minority issues, in a statement. India's mission at the U.N. in Geneva rejected the statement as "baseless" and "unwarranted allegations." In a tweet on Tuesday, it said it was India's "prerogative to host its meetings in any part of the country." India also held G20 tourism meetings in the states of West Bengal and Gujarat earlier this year, and one more is scheduled in Goa next month. ___ SEARCHES AND PATROLS REDOUBLE AHEAD OF MEETING Intrusive security measures have been a fact of life in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989, when a violent separatist insurgency erupted and Indian forces replied with a brutal crackdown. While the armed rebellion was largely suppressed, the region remains one of the world's most heavily militarized territory, with hundreds of thousands of Indian troops deployed. For decades, a typical Kashmiri's day has included frisking and questioning by police and soldiers, house raids and random searches of cars. But after New Delhi took the region under its direct control, authorities have seized scores of homes and arrested hundreds under stringent anti-terror laws. The government says such actions are necessary to stop what it calls a "terror ecosystem." Mehbooba Mufti, the region's former top elected official, said that police had detained hundreds of Kashmiris ahead of the meeting. In a party newsletter, she alleged that there has been an "unprecedented surge in arrests, raids, surveillance and persecution of our people" ahead of the event. In a statement on Monday, police said there is a "need to enhance the security measures at vulnerable locations to avoid any chance of terrorist attack during the G20" meeting. Kashmir has remained on edge since the 2019 changes, as authorities put in place new laws that critics and many Kashmiris fear could transform the region's demographics. In New Delhi's effort to shape what it calls "Naya Kashmir," or a "new Kashmir," the territory's people and its press have been largely silenced. Although violence has ebbed in last few years, fighting between government forces and rebels opposed to Indian rule still erupts periodically. At least 10 Indian soldiers, including five members of army special forces, were killed recently in two militant attacks in Jammu region.  

After seven Hindus were killed in early January in two back-to-back attacks in Dhangri village in disputed Kashmir, former Indian army soldier Satish Kumar described his sleepy mountainous village as an “abode of fear.” Days after the deadly violence in the village in frontier Rajouri district, where homes are separated by maize and mustard fields, hundreds of residents staged angry protests across the Hindu-dominated Jammu region. In response, Indian authorities revived a government-sponsored militia and began rearming and training thousands of villagers, including some teenagers. Kumar was among the first people to join the militia under the new drive and authorities armed him with a semiautomatic rifle and 100 bullets. “I feel like a soldier again,” said the 40-year-old Kumar, who runs a grocery store since his retirement from the Indian military in 2018. The militia, officially called the “Village Defense Group,” was initially formed in the 1990s as the first line of defense against anti-India insurgents in remote Himalayan villages that government forces could not reach quickly. Also Read: 2 kids among 6 people die in Kashmir village attack: Police As the insurgency waned in their operational areas and as some militia members gained notoriety for brutality and rights violations, drawing severe criticism from human rights groups, the militia was largely disbanded. But the January violence stirred unpleasant memories of past attacks in Rajouri, which is near the highly militarized Line of Control that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan and where combat between Indian soldiers and rebels is not uncommon. Brandishing his weapon inside his single-story concrete home on an overcast February day, Kumar justified his decision to join the militia as the “only way to combat fear and protect (my) family from terrorists.” “I am a trained person and have fought against terrorists. But what is the use of (military) training if you do not have a weapon,” Kumar said. “Believe me, I felt almost incapacitated due to fear.” On January 1, two gunmen killed four villagers, including a father and his son, and wounded at least five others. The next day, a blast outside one of the houses killed two children and injured at least 10 others. It is still unclear whether the explosive was left behind by the attackers. A week later, one of the injured died at a hospital, raising the overall death toll to seven. “There was carnage in our village and Hindus were under attack,” Kumar said. Also Read: Indian police say 4 suspected rebels killed in Kashmir The police blamed militants fighting against Indian rule for decades in Kashmir, the Himalayan territory claimed by India and Pakistan in its entirety. But two months later, they are yet to announce a breakthrough or name any suspects, exacerbating fear and anger among residents in the village of about 5,000 where Hindus represent about 70% and the rest are Muslims. The policy to rearm civilians comes after India stripped Kashmir of its semiautonomy and took direct control of the territory amid a months-long security and communications lockdown in 2019. Kashmir has since remained on edge as authorities also put in place a slew of new laws that critics and many Kashmiris fear could change the region’s demographics. In New Delhi’s effort to shape what it calls “Naya Kashmir,” or a “new Kashmir,” the territory’s people have been largely silenced, with their civil liberties curbed, as India has shown no tolerance for any form of dissent. So when the Dhangri violence occurred, the Indian government was swift to rearm the civilian militia even though it had announced its reconstitution in August last year. Officials said they have since armed and provided weapons training to over 100 other Hindu men in Dhangri, while also lifting the ban on gun licenses in the already militarized Rajouri. The village already had over 70 former militiamen, some of whom still possess the colonial British-era Lee–Enfield rifles allotted to them over a decade ago. For the first time, the militia has also been financially incentivized by the government, which said each member would be paid 4,000 Indian rupees ($48) a month. Still, the decision to revitalize the Village Defense Group is not without controversy. Some security and political experts argue that the policy could weaponize divisions in Jammu’s volatile hinterland where communal strife has historically existed. In the past, more than 200 police cases, including charges of rape, murder and rioting, were registered against some of the tens of thousands of militiamen in Jammu region, according to government data. “Small arms proliferation is dangerous for any society and when a state does it, it’s a tacit admission of failure to secure a society,” said Zafar Choudhary, a political analyst. India has a long history of arming civilians in its counterinsurgency efforts and civilian militiamen were first used to fight separatists in India’s northeastern states. In 2005, India’s federal government founded a local militia, the Salwa Judum, to combat Maoist rebels in the central Chhattisgarh state. It was accused by rights groups of committing widespread atrocities and was disbanded in 2011. In Kashmir, the civil defense groups were armed almost six years after the deadly insurgency against Indian rule began. S.P. Vaid was a young officer in 1995 when he supervised the creation of the militia’s first unit after two Hindu men were killed in a militant attack in a remote hilly village in Jammu region. Vaid, who recently retired as Indian-controlled Kashmir’s top police officer, said hours after his team reached the village the locals demanded arms for their protection. “I had no government brief on that, but I immediately sought permission from headquarters to provide the villagers with 10 guns,” he said. “That’s how it started.” The Indian government formally rolled out a policy to arm villagers a few months later. Security officials argue that arming civilians deterred militant activity and helped stop the out-migration of Hindus from remote areas, unlike in the Kashmir valley where a year after armed rebellion broke out most local Hindus fled to Jammu amid militant threats and the killings of local community leaders. Kuldeep Khoda, another former top police officer in the region credited for implementing the policy, said the results “surprised us." “It was an experiment but it worked,” Khoda said at his home in Jammu city. For its work on civil defense groups, the region’s police were given an award by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, an influential U.S.-based police group, Khoda said. The militia, he said, “played a pivotal role in defeating Pakistani designs to instigate communal tensions.” But Choudhary, the political analyst, said “civilians are not armed in a functional democracy.” The sharpening divisions already appear stark in Dhangri. Muslim residents in the village say fear and grief bind them together with their Hindu neighbors, yet their request to join the militia has been refused. Mohammed Mushtaq is a former paramilitary soldier who lives near the house where gunmen first fired on January 1. “We have lived together for generations and have a similar social system. But fingers have been pointed at us,” he said. Mushtaq and two other Muslim neighbors, also former soldiers, asked the authorities for weapons under the policy but were refused, he said. As Mushtaq spoke sitting outside his home, the sounds of religious hymns and devotional songs floated from the loudspeakers of a Hindu temple on top of a hill. The chants were interspersed with the chirping of birds and occasional whistles from pressure cookers in some village kitchens. Moments later, a muezzin called Muslims to early afternoon prayers. Kumar, the former soldier and militia member, said the decision not to induct his Muslim neighbors in the militia was “arbitrary” as “we still do not know who carried out the massacre” in Dhangri. Meanwhile, hundreds of old militia members in Rajouri’s remote hamlets are oiling their weapons again. “We had locked up our guns and thought we would never need them,” said 38-year-old Usha Raina, who has been a militia member since 2015 along with over two dozen other villagers in the neighboring hamlet of Kalal Khas. “The incident (in Dhangri) has scared us all and the guns are back in our living rooms,” she said.

Police in Indian-controlled Kashmir said government forces killed four suspected militants in a gunbattle on Wednesday. A top police officer, Mukesh Singh, said troops intercepted a truck in the outskirts of Jammu city early Wednesday following its “unusual movement” on a highway. Read more: Police break up Muslim gathering in Kashmir, dozens detained As the troops began searching the truck, gunfire came from inside it, to which the troops retaliated, leading to a gunfight, Singh told reporters. Police said four suspected militants were killed and authorities recovered at least eight automatic rifles and some ammunition from the truck. According to police, the driver of the truck escaped and a search was under way to find him. There was no independent confirmation of the alleged gunbattle. Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and both claim the disputed territory in its entirety. Read more: Hindu banker and a worker from India fatally shot in Kashmir Rebels in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Most Muslim Kashmiris support the rebel goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country. India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and most Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.

Police on Sunday detained dozens of people in Indian-controlled Kashmir as they dispersed Shiite Muslims who attempted to participate in processions marking the Muslim month of Muharram. Scores of Muslims defied severe security restrictions in parts of the main city of Srinagar and took to streets chanting religious slogans. The restrictions include a ban on the Shiite religious procession. Muharram is among the holiest months for Shiites across the world and and includes large processions of mourners beating their chests while reciting elegies and chanting slogans to mourn the death of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussein and 72 companions in the battle of Karbala in present-day Iraq. Sunday’s procession marked the eighth day of Muharram, two days before its peak on the day of Ashura. Read: Fmr Bengal governor elected India's next Vice-President In 2020, dozens were injured as Indian forces fired shotgun pellets and tear gas to disperse the procession. Some main Muharram processions have been banned in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir since an armed insurgency broke out in 1989 demanding the region’s independence from India or its merger with neighboring Pakistan. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict. Kashmiri Muslims have long complained that the government is curbing their religious freedom on the pretext of maintaining law and order while promoting an annual Hindu pilgrimage to the Himalayan Amarnath Shrine in Kashmir that draws hundreds of thousands of visitors. The ongoing Hindu pilgrimage has drawn hundreds of thousands of visitors from across India amid massive security with tens of thousands of soldiers guarding the routes leading to the cave shrine.

Sarfaraz Javaid thumps his chest rhythmically in the music video, swaying to the guitar and letting his throaty voice ring out through the forest: “What kind of soot has shrouded the sky? It has turned my world dark. ... Why has the home been entrusted to strangers?” “Khuaftan Baange” — Kashmiri for “the call to night’s prayer” — plays out like a groaning dirge for Muslim-majority Kashmir, the starkly beautiful Himalayan territory that’s home to decades of territorial conflict, gun-toting soldiers and harsh crackdowns on the populace. It is mournful in tone but lavish in lyrical symbolism inspired by Sufism, an Islamic mystic tradition. Its form is that of a Marsiya, a poetic rendition that is a lament for Muslim martyrs. “I just express myself and scream, but when harmony is added, it becomes a song,” Javaid, a poet like his father and grandfather, said in an interview. Javaid is among a movement of artists in disputed Kashmir, divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both since 1947, who are forming a new musical tradition that blends progressive Sufi rock with hip-hop in an assertive expression of political aspirations. They call it “conscious music.” Drawing on elements of Islam and spiritual poetry, it is often laced with religious metaphors to circumvent measures restricting some free speech in Indian-controlled Kashmir that have led many poets and singers to swallow their words. It also seeks to bridge tensions between Muslim tradition and modernism in a region that in many ways still clings to a conservative past. “It’s like venting decades of pent-up emotions,” Javaid said. Kashmir has a centuries-old tradition of spoken poetry that is heavily influenced by Islam, with mystical, rhapsodic verses often used when making supplications at mosques and shrines. After rebellion against Indian rule broke out in 1989, poetic renditions about liberation poured out from mosque loudspeakers and elegies inspired by historical Islamic events were sung at the funerals of fallen rebels. Two decades of fighting left Kashmir and its people scarred with tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces dead before the armed struggle withered, paving the way for unarmed mass demonstrations that shook the region in 2008 and 2010. Around that time Kashmir also saw the rise of protest music in English-language hip-hop and rap, a new anthem of resistance. Singer-songwriter Roushan Illahi, who performs under the name MC Kash, was the genre’s pioneer, making angry, grab-you-by-the-neck music that became a rallying cry for young people to use sharp rhymes and beats to challenge India’s sovereignty over the region. Read: In Kashmir, India batters press freedom — and journalists Kash’s songs treaded dangerously close to sedition, however, as questioning India’s claim to the restive region is illegal. The country has sharply restricted freedom of expression regarding the issue in Kashmir, including some curbs to the media, dissent and religious practices. Frequent questioning by police pushed Kash to a point where he almost stopped making music. Some colleagues have continue to record and perform but began incorporating coded language, or moved away from politics altogether. “First it was a chokehold,” Kash said, “but now it is a pillow on your mouth.” Tensions escalated in 2016 when Indian troops put down another massive public uprising, leading to a renewed militancy. Three years later, in 2019, New Delhi revoked the region’s partial autonomy amid a communications blackout and a harsh crackdown on the press and other forms of free expression. The situation has since worsened with India’s aggressive counterinsurgency operations leading to an uptick in gunfights between rebels and Indian troops. Deadly attacks by rebels have also increased against Kashmiri police officials, Indian migrant workers and the region’s minority Hindus. The crackdown that began in 2019 has persisted. Nevertheless, many artists stuck to the music and have been catapulted to fame, their songs widely shared on social media. “Conscious music” has flourished further as artists more recently began incorporating Urdu and Kashmiri lyrics. On a recent afternoon, a cohort of young artists gathered at the home studio of composer Zeeshan Nabi in the suburbs of Srinagar, Kashmir’s main city. Filling the room with coils of cigarette smoke, they passionately debated the essence of metaphors and religious references in their work. “What (religious symbolism) is doing is constantly knocking at the door, either in the form of a reminder or a memory from the past,” Nabi said. He expressed optimism that the gag is temporary: “For how long can you hold the grip? The oppressor can oppress till about a certain time.” “We are dreamers,” Arif Farooq, a hip-hop artist who uses the stage name Qafilah, said with a chuckle. Read: India landslide death toll reaches 47 Qafilah’s music video “Faraar” — “the runaway” — begins with a shot of a concertina wire and him sitting in the courtyard of a shrine to Kashmir’s most revered Sufi saint, Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani. It invokes the ancient Battle of Karbala, where the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson was martyred and which symbolizes the struggle against injustice and oppression. “Our malady can only be cured by revolution, my friend. Every answer lies in Karbala, my friend,” Qafilah urges in the song. Religious symbolism, Qafilah said, is a creative device to reflect Kashmir’s pain and also evade the state’s gaze. “You want to steal, but you don’t want to be caught,” he said. The symbolism of faith as subtext is hard to miss in this new form of music. One recent video, “Inshallah” — “God willing” — has lyrics that evoke monotheism, the cornerstone of the Islamic faith. In it, singer Yawar Abdal imagines a Kashmir where people, blindfolded and with nooses around their necks, are liberated amid chants of “All shall be free.” The refrain “inshallah” is set against a booming chorus of morning prayers as chanted in mosques. Another song — “Jhelum,” named for Kashmir’s main river — became an instant hit for contrasting the banality of daily life in Kashmir with the ongoing mourning for the dead. In online videos, users have since set the song to moving and still images of fallen fighters to memorialize them — it’s in part a way of resisting authorities’ policy since 2020 of burying suspected rebels in remote mountain graveyards, denying their families the opportunity to perform last rites. “There’s this tension in the air that is shaping you in a certain manner,” said poet and singer Faheem Abdullah, the man behind “Jhelum.” Poets and musicians receive state patronage in Kashmir, and government-sponsored musical events continue to be held regularly. At least some Indian authorities take a dim view of the burgeoning movement of protest music, however; at one recent event, a top Indian military general lauded the region’s rich artistic heritage but deplored “the kind of rap songs which bring only sadness.” On a recent evening, Javaid, the artist behind “Khuaftan Baange,” sat at the shore of Srinagar’s picturesque Dal Lake and belted out an elegy for his homeland. As the sun slipped behind the mountains and a drizzle began to fall, he ended by reciting the names of disappeared people. A distant relative was among the names. “I reflect what I see,” Javaid said. “I see pain, agony and loss.”

Assailants fatally shot a Hindu bank manager and a worker in targeted shootings in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Thursday, according to police who blamed the attacks on militants fighting against Indian rule of the disputed region. Militants shot and wounded two Hindu workers at a brick factory near Chadoora town on Thursday night, Jammu-Kashmir police said in a statement. They were taken to a hospital, where one of the workers from India’s Bihar state died. Earlier Thursday, suspected militants shot and killed a bank manager, Vijay Kumar, in southern Kulgam district, a separate Jammu-Kashmir police statement said. Kumar, from India’s Rajasthan state, died at a hospital following the shooting. CCTV footage circulating on social media shows a masked assailant walk into the bank and fire shots at Kumar with what appears to be a handgun. Also read: India soldier killed, 4 workers injured in Kashmir attacks Muslim-majority Kashmir has witnessed a spate of targeted killings in recent months. They come as Indian troops have continued their counterinsurgency operations across the region amid a clampdown on dissent and media freedom, which critics have likened to a militaristic policy. On Tuesday, suspected militants, also in Kulgam, shot and killed a Hindu schoolteacher, Rajini Bala. After that killing, Hindu government employees staged protests in several areas, demanding the government relocate them from Kashmir to safer areas in the Hindu-dominated Jammu region. They accused the government of making them “scapegoats” and “cannon fodder” to showcase normalcy in the region and chanted slogans like “The only solution is relocation.” Hundreds of Hindus who had returned to the region after 2010 as part of a government resettlement plan that provided them with jobs and housing fled the Kashmir Valley after the killing of Bala, according to Kashmiri Hindu activists. Some 4,000 Kashmiri Hindus, who are locally known as Pandits, have been recruited for government jobs under the program. Those employees have been on a strike since May 13 after a Hindu revenue clerk was killed inside an office complex in Chadoora town. In the aftermath of the clerk’s killing, hundreds of Pandits — an estimated 200,000 of whom fled Kashmir after an anti-India rebellion erupted in 1989 — organized for the first time simultaneous street protests at several locations in the region demanding better security. “We were tricked into thinking that the government is rehabilitating us under an employment package,” said Jyoti Bhat, a local Hindu teacher who joined the program seven years ago. “It’s turning out to be a death package.” Also read: Indian, Pakistani killed in UAE gas blast that injured 120 Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and both claim it in its entirety. Most Muslim Kashmiris in the Indian-controlled portion support the rebel goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country. When Kashmir turned into a battleground in the 1990s, attacks and threats by militants led to the departure of most Kashmiri Hindus, who supported India’s rule, with many believing that the rebellion was also aimed at wiping them out. Most of the region’s Muslims, long resentful of Indian rule, deny that Hindus were systematically targeted, and say India helped them move out or allowed their flight in order to cast Kashmir’s struggle as Islamic extremism. Those tensions were renewed after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014 amid a sharp rise in communalism in India, and the Indian government pursued a plan to house returning migrant Kashmiri Hindus in new townships. Muslim leaders described such plans as a conspiracy to create communal division by separating the population along religious lines, particularly after India stripped the region’s semi-autonomy in 2019 and removed inherited protections on land and jobs amid a monthslong lockdown and communication blockade. Last year, suspected rebels killed a minority Sikh and several Hindus, including immigrant workers from Indian states, in a wave of targeted shootings in the region. The killings came after India enacted a slew of changes in 2019, such as issuing “domicile certificates” to Indians and non-residents, entitling them to residency rights and government jobs. Many Kashmiris view such moves as aimed at engineering a demographic change in India’s only Muslim-majority region. Many Muslim village councilors, police officers and civilians also have been killed in targeted shootings during the period. “It’s a disastrous situation. It’s not just the (Hindu) employees who are in panic. We all are living in constant fear since 2019,” said Sanjay Tickoo, a local Kashmiri Pandit activist, who like some 800 other Pandit families did not migrate from Kashmir in the 1990s but chose to stay behind to live with their Muslim neighbors. He said that New Delhi’s 2019 changes in Kashmir brought “demons of hate and division” back to the fore. “Killings in Kashmir happen as communalism is fast rising in India," he said. "If there is another large-scale migration (of minorities) from Kashmir to other parts of the country, it will create more difficulties for Muslim minorities in India. Minorities are vulnerable everywhere.”

A paramilitary solider was killed and another wounded in a rebel attack in Indian-controlled Kashmir’s main city, while four laborers were injured in two separate attacks elsewhere in the disputed region, police said Monday. Two militants on a motorbike opened fire at paramilitary soldiers patrolling in the main business center of Srinagar on Monday, police said. The injured soldiers were taken to a hospital, where one was declared dead. Police and soldiers cordoned off the area and launched a search for the militants. Attackers also fired Monday at two Indian workers in southern Pulwama district, leaving them injured, police said. Hours earlier, two laborers were injured late Sunday in a gunfire attack in Pulwama. Also read: In Kashmir, India batters press freedom — and journalists Police blamed militants fighting against Indian rule for the string of attacks. There was no independent confirmation of the incidents. Both India and Pakistan claim the divided territory of Kashmir in its entirety. Rebels in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Most Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country. Also read: 12 dead in stampede at popular Hindu shrine in Kashmir India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and most Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.