Srinagar
Three weeks after he laid down his tools and took up arms, Kashmiri carpenter Mukhtar Ahmed was killed in a firefight with Indian government forces, who buried his remains in an unmarked grave hours from his family home. Mukhtar is among hundreds of people who were killed in combat and hastily interred by police in remote parts of India-held Kashmir, the picturesque Himalayan region home to a long insurgency. Officials have justified the policy by saying it aims to stop “glamourising terrorists” during often violent anti-India demonstrations that accompany the public funerals of dead rebels. But these “martyrs’ graveyards”, as they are known locally, have traumatised the families of slain young men and outraged Kashmiris chafing under a broader clampdown on dissent.
