Kulgam, Indian-administered Kashmir — When Showkat Ahmad’s body was discovered, it was covered in sores, and one of his eyes was bloodied. His hair was falling out, and the skin on the 18-year-old’s hands and legs was peeling off, recalled his father, Mohamad Sadiq.
That was on March 16, three days after Sadiq learned that his elder son, Riyaz, 25, had also died. Both young men had disappeared a month earlier.
According to the official statement from law enforcement, Showkat and Riyaz drowned in a canal in the Kulgam region of Indian-administered Kashmir, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from their homes. Their postmortem reports suggest the possibility of suicide.
However, Sadiq — and many in the Gujjar tribal community to which the family belongs — refuse to accept this explanation. Sadiq admitted he is unsure who is responsible for his sons’ disappearance and deaths — whether it was security agencies or an armed group. Yet, he is convinced that foul play was involved.
“This wasn’t an accident,” the 72-year-old father shouted, his voice breaking with anguish as he spoke to Al Jazeera outside his home, on an open grazing ground where relatives had gathered to support him. “They were tortured and killed.”
While the government denies these accusations, the widespread disbelief in its narrative reflects deep distrust of law enforcement in a region shaken by a series of recent disappearances — with bodies often found weeks later. Mukhtar Ahmad Awan, a 24-year-old who disappeared alongside Riyaz and Showkat, remains missing.
This distrust is rooted in Kashmir’s history. Since the start of an armed rebellion against India in 1989, between 8,000 and 10,000 Kashmiris have disappeared, according to the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), a group of relatives of victims of enforced disappearances in Kashmir.
“My sons were brutally murdered,” Sadiq insisted.
A Tragic Wedding Visit
In the quiet grazing grounds of Chandarkoot, about 68 kilometers (39 miles) from Srinagar, Kashmir’s largest city, a hilly landscape dotted with walnut and willow trees shelters flocks of sheep owned by the local Gujjar community.
On February 13, Riyaz, Showkat, and Mukhtar left the nearby village of Qazigund to attend a wedding in the Ashmuji area of Kulgam district. They never arrived.
Sadiq tried calling his sons on their mobile phones around 6:10 pm, but the phones were switched off.
“We desperately searched for them near the wedding venue, in Kulgam, and everywhere we could think of,” he said. By 7 pm, the family alerted the police. When the youths still hadn’t returned by the next morning, they filed a missing person report.
For a month, police, the army, and local rescue teams searched for them but found nothing. Then, on March 13, Sadiq’s phone rang.
The searchers had found Riyaz’s body in a canal. Three days later, Showkat’s body was discovered in the same canal.
Forensic expert Azia Manzoor Bhat, who examined Riyaz’s body at District Hospital Kulgam during the postmortem, told reporters that the body was in an “advanced stage of decay.” Bhat stated that his examination suggested Riyaz died of drowning with no signs of homicide, pointing instead to possible suicide.
Authorities also concluded that Showkat died of drowning.
However, protests have erupted over the deaths, escalating into a political controversy. Sadiq and his family protested on the national highway connecting Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, to Jammu, the winter capital, demanding an investigation.
A video allegedly showing a police officer kicking a female protester on the highway went viral.
Meanwhile, in Jammu district, approximately 198 kilometers (123 miles) away, police arrested student leaders from the Kashmiri Gujjar community as they protested the Kulgam deaths!
The police have initiated an internal investigation into the alleged kicking incident. In the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, leaders from the governing National Conference and opposition parties, including the Congress, Peoples Democratic Party, and People’s Conference, called for action against the officers involved.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has yet to issue an official statement on the kicking incident or the disappearances and deaths.
Surge in Mysterious Disappearances and Deaths
For Sadiq and others demanding an investigation, the deaths of Riyaz and Showkat, as well as Mukhtar’s disappearance, follow a disturbing trend.
In Kathua district, neighboring Kulgam, two men — Yogesh Singh, 32, and Darshan Singh, 40 — and 15-year-old Varun Singh went missing on March 5 while returning from a wedding.
Their bodies were found in a canal three days later.
Days after that, two teenagers — Mohammad Din and Rehman Ali — disappeared in Kathua. They remain missing nearly a month later.
They are Muslim, while the three men who disappeared before them were Hindu — all united by tragedy.
Fear of the government and security forces runs deep in the Gujjar community, especially after a series of killings and unnatural deaths in recent years. The community, along with an ethnic subgroup known as the Bakarwals, makes up about 8 percent of the population of Jammu and Kashmir, according to India’s 2011 census, though some community representatives argue their numbers are underrepresented due to their nomadic lifestyle.
In 2020, an Indian army officer allegedly abducted and killed three young Gujjar men in Rajouri district. Police charged the officer with abducting and killing the three laborers in a staged encounter. A court martial found the officer guilty and recommended life imprisonment. However, in November 2023, an Armed Forces Tribunal suspended the sentence and granted the officer bail while the case continues.
In December 2023, following an attack by armed fighters on army vehicles in Poonch district’s Topa Pir village, security forces detained many locals for interrogation. Videos emerged showing officers beating civilians and applying chili powder to their wounds. Three Gujjar men — Mohammad Showkat (22), Safeer Hussain (45), and Shabir Ahmad (32) — died in custody, their bodies bearing signs of severe torture.
Then, starting in December 2024, 17 people from the community died under mysterious circumstances in just over a month. The victims, including 13 minors, exhibited symptoms such as fever, vomiting, and abdominal pain before their deaths. Investigations ruled out viral or bacterial infections, with preliminary findings suggesting neurotoxins as the cause. Despite extensive testing, the exact toxin and its source remain unidentified, leaving the community in fear and seeking answers.
In February 2025, a 25-year-old Gujjar man, Makhan Din, recorded a video explaining why he was about to take his own life, detailing alleged torture by security forces.
Police claimed Din, who died by suicide, was questioned over suspicious Pakistani contacts and was not tortured.
Few Kashmiri Gujjars believe this story.
“Our people disappear, and we are told to stay quiet,” said Abid Awan, an 18-year-old neighbor of Sadiq in Kulgam.
“We live in fear, knowing our voices are ignored, and our suffering is dismissed. It feels like we don’t exist to those in power.”
‘Waiting for Death’
Chandi Awan’s frail hands trembled as the 80-year-old father of Mukhtar, the missing 24-year-old in Kulgam, clutched his walking stick.
“Mukhtar was the light of my eyes. Without him, my world has fallen into darkness,” Awan said, surrounded by grieving relatives outside his home, about 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) from Sadiq’s. “The pain is unbearable — it feels as though I am waiting for death.”
Mohammad Jeelani Awan, Mukhtar’s brother, said the government’s explanation for the deaths of Showkat and Riyaz doesn’t make sense. “Their belongings, including cards, mobile phones, and cash, were dry. How is this possible?” he asked.
Every night, as he tries to sleep, all he sees is his brother’s face, he said.
“The smile that once lit up our home, the dreams he had. It’s hard to believe he’s gone, taken from us in such an unforgiving way. I can’t help but feel I failed him, that I couldn’t protect him,” said Jeelani, letting out a scream. “I wish there was a way to turn back time, to give him the life he deserved.”
The families vow to continue seeking justice.
“We will not let this go and demand a fair and independent probe,” said 65-year-old Ghulam Nabi, uncle of Showkat and Riyaz.
Meanwhile, Riyaz’s wife, Najma Begum, sat quietly in a corner of her one-story house, her face pale and eyes swollen from tears. In one hand, she clutched a handkerchief, and in the other, a photograph of her husband. Silent sobs shook her body as she stared at the photo, then hugged her eight-year-old daughter.
“All we want is justice, nothing more, nothing less. If the law truly exists, we will get justice,” she cried.
“They have killed him. They have killed my Riyaz.”
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