KULGAM, KASHMIR: Ruqaiya Bano, 30, hasn’t slept well for almost a week now. The home where she grew up, in Indian-administered Kashmir’s Kulgam, was blasted by soldiers. Her hands and face are plastered with dust as she digs the rubble of her home with bare hands to scrape out what is left of her childhood.
Bano is not the only one who has been left to pick up the pieces of her crushed life from the debris of her home. Several homes linked to alleged anti-India rebels were also destroyed across southern Kashmir. Soldiers believe that these homes belonged to men suspected of carrying out the mass killing on April 22 – the disputed region’s deadliest attack against civilians in nearly two decades.
To avenge the killing of the 26 tourists shot in Pahalgam, a tourist spot in Kashmir, authorities allegedly planted controlled explosives in the family homes of anti-India rebels, which they later detonated. Explosions occurred on April 24, 25, 26 and 27. The blasts have also impacted homes of neighbors who had no connection whatsoever with the alleged anti-India rebels.
The suspects in the attack – and the targets of the detonations – are alleged to be members of Islamic rebel groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hizbul Mujahideen, and their factions in the region.
In South Kashmir’s Kulgam, Zakir Ganaie’s home has been reduced to ruins, leaving his mother and sister to pick up the pieces. Photo by Tarushi Aswani.
Rubble, Rhetoric and Rebellion
Ruqaiya Bano’s mother, Aisha Begum, is in a state of deep shock and despair. Begum talks less than her daughter and has busied herself with pulling out her belongings from below the rubble that the Indian-state authorities have left her with.
Begum’s son Zakir Ahmad Ganaie, 26, was a construction laborer who worked for daily wages before choosing to become an anti-India rebel. There are days when his family is still shocked beyond measure to believe that he actually left them to follow the path of violence.
“He would never sit idle, he would always have either a shovel, a spade, or a sickle in his hand. He would always be working,” his mother said. Ganaie’s elder brothers, his uncle, and his cousin were detained, like a thousand other Kashmiris, on the evening of the attack in Pahalgam, while his parents saw their lives being blasted in front of their eyes.
His sister Bano does not defend him, but she protests the state-sponsored tragedy that her family has suffered. “It was his choice to pick up arms, we are not responsible for it. We are not even aware of his whereabouts, yet our whole life was blown apart. It was better for us to die when our homes were blasted,” Bano says.
The act of the security forces is clearly meant as a punishment for the families of alleged anti-India rebels after the Pahalgam attack. However, the region’s authorities are not alone in using this particular type of punishment. The razing of these homes in Kashmir without issuing notices to their owners has recentered focus on observations made by India’s Supreme Court in which it mandated that the right to shelter was a fundamental right as part of the basic structure of the Indian Constitution. Yet that has not stopped the demolition of houses with no warning and no recourse.
In North Kashmir’s Kupwara district as well, a suspect’s house was blasted. The suspect, Farooq Tedwa, allegedly went to Pakistan in the 1990s and joined a militant organization there. The family says they have not heard from him since.
“No one has ever harassed us. But after the Pahalgam attack, the army came and blew up our house. This is the first time something like this has happened in this area,” said Mansha Tedwa, cousin of Farooq Tedwa.
“We have had no contact with him since the day he left. If you wanted to kill him, why was our house blown up?”
Crime scene tape hangs in front of the rubble of the home of alleged militant Adnan Dar in South Kashmir’s Shopian. Photo by Tarushi Aswani.
Casualty of Conflict
Wandina village in South Kashmir’s Shopian is like any other village in the region, featuring lush trees, sprawling meadows, rugged roads, decaying bridges, and houses glued together with bricks, tin, and wood.
On April 27, soldiers blasted the home of Mohammed Shafi Dar, reducing his family dwelling to rubble and rubbish. Dar’s son, Adnan Shafi Dar, a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant, is among the suspects of the Pahalgam attack.
Since the blast, Dar, 50, often spends most of his day looking at the debris that his home has now become. Staring at the blasted doors and windows of his home, Dar often zooms out of the present and zooms into the past – the day when he saw his son Adnan for the last time, before he left to join the rebellion.
“Adnan was a frail-looking, timid boy who was yet to even grow a beard. I saw my 19-year-old in October last year. No one would have ever imagined he would leave us like this,” Dar told The Diplomat.
Dar, already coping with the pain of his young son running away from home, cannot yet comprehend the damage that his son’s decision has caused him – not because it is personal, but because it has never happened in his district before. His district, Shopian, has been known for its contribution to militancy ever since the rebellion gained momentum in the region.
“Our district, our village has seen many leave, and learned about many being killed for being militants. But this has never happened to any of their houses,” Dar told The Diplomat.
Since 2014, South Kashmir especially has seen a rise in recruitment of those who choose violence as an answer to the Kashmir conundrum. South Kashmir has often been labeled as a “hotbed of militancy,” with four southern districts of the region – Anantnag, Kulgam, Pulwama, and Shopian – attracting maximum vigilance.
Beyond the demolitions, many families’ sons have been detained in what is being labeled a crackdown on Kashmiris. Almost 1,500 Kashmiris have been rounded up by security forces for questioning in relation to the attack – apparently an attempt to show muscle after the Modi government had admitted to a security lapse in the recent Pahalgam attack during a closed-door all-party meeting.
Now, common Kashmiris whose family members may or may not have direct involvement in the April 22 attack have become the victims of state-sanctioned vengeance.
The view from Ahsan ul Haq Sheikh’s razed home in Pulwama, South Kashmir. Photo by Tarushi Aswani.
Questioning Collective Punishment
In 2023, Ahsan Ul Haq Sheikh left his home in Pulwama district’s Murran village to take up arms as a militant. On April 25, 2025, security forces razed the three-story home where his family lived. This particular house was bombed twice to ensure the structure was completely reduced to rubble.
At least 13 nearby houses were damaged by the explosives planted at Sheikh’s home. Sheikh’s family shies away from their neighbours out of guilt. However, while Sheikh had a history of involvement with anti-India rebels, there is nothing to link his family to any crime.
On April 24, the family home of LeT militant Adil Ahmad Thoker was blasted by the security forces. Thoker is one of the suspects named by the Jammu and Kashmir police as responsible for the attack.
While there is an overall belief among security officials that this action may discourage Kashmiris from taking up arms against India, a few feel differently.
A former Indian Army commander told The Diplomat that this will only alienate Kashmiris more. “It is the worst strategy that could have been used to tackle the situation. This will only push more people towards violence. This tactic will prove to be counterproductive and violates human rights,” he said. The former commander emphasized how the demolition of family homes may even create more insurgents.
Dr Sheikh Showkat, a renowned Kashmiri academic, political, and human rights activist, feels that Kashmiris whose houses were razed are entitled to rights within the fold of the constitution.
“Article 21 of India’s Constitution says that no one can be deprived of their life and liberty. This includes the right to shelter as well; it cannot be suspended during any event or incident [and] even extends to foreigners and aliens,” Showkat told The Diplomat.
He pointed out that “India provided a lawyer to Ajmal Kasab, a Pakistani national, who opened fire and killed civilians in Mumbai in 2008.”
“How can India deny rights to its own citizens?”