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Kashmir is many things. It is a disputed borderland that India and Pakistan have fought over for more than three-quarters of a century, making it one of the world\u2019s most strife-torn and militarized zones. It is a Bollywood cinematographer\u2019s alpine dream, its fabled beauty and trauma providing grist for tales of love, longing and war.<\/p>\n
Since 2019, when the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India tightened its grip on the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, promising security and economic development, it has become a tourist hot spot drawing millions of visitors a year. In the government\u2019s narrative of progress, Kashmir is a shining success.<\/p>\n
The region\u2019s people have their own story to tell. It is one of festering alienation \u2014 magnified by last week\u2019s horrific terrorist attack in Kashmir<\/a> \u2014 after years of living under the watchful eyes of security forces while being deprived of many democratic rights.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Indian troops have launched an aggressive, widespread hunt for the killers that feels like collective punishment to many in the Muslim-majority region. The authorities have detained thousands of Kashmiris<\/a> for questioning and demolished the homes of at least 10 people accused in the attack.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are treated as suspects,\u201d said Sheikh Aamir, a lawyer in northern Kashmir. \u201cWhenever something happens, they punish us all.\u201d<\/p>\n India has said that the terrorist attack, which killed 26 innocent people near the town of Pahalgam, has \u201ccross-border linkages,\u201d implying the involvement of its neighbor Pakistan<\/a>. Officials in Pakistan, who deny any role in the attack, said on Wednesday that they had detected signs that India was preparing to take retaliatory military action.<\/p>\n India has not commented on its military planning, but Mr. Modi has condemned the attackers and promised to \u201craze\u201d terrorist safe havens. Airstrikes by India along the border, or even an incursion into Pakistani territory, is possible, analysts said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n These developments have spread fear among Kashmiris, many of whom had already felt isolated from the rest of India as right-wing Hindus have vilified them and painted them as aggressors.<\/p>\n Since the terrorist attack \u2014 in which all but one of those killed were Hindu tourists \u2014 Hindu nationalists, including officials in Mr. Modi\u2019s party, have used the assault to expand their demonization of Muslims. That has included attacking or harassing Kashmiri students<\/a> studying in other parts of the country. Many said they had huddled in their rooms in panic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe attack on Kashmir has quickly become a mass Islamophobia,\u201d said Rohan Gunaratna, an expert on international terrorism.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Before the massacre, Kashmir had been in a period of relative calm since the Indian government brought the region under its direct control, removing the semi-autonomy guaranteed to Kashmir in India\u2019s Constitution and moving in thousands of troops.<\/p>\n But as the Indian government claimed that it had brought normalcy to the region, some Kashmiris expressed anger at what they called false propaganda.<\/p>\n Normalcy in Kashmir has always been \u201csuperficial and deceptive,\u201d said Sumantra Bose, a political scientist and author who has studied Kashmir. He described life in the region as a \u201creal-life hybrid of Orwellian and Kafkaesque.\u201d<\/p>\n Primarily driven by local grievances, an insurgency in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir began in the 1980s, with Pakistan eventually supporting and harboring some groups, experts say. Attacks by militant groups often targeted Hindus, forcing an exodus<\/a> of the minority community from Kashmir.<\/p>\n The idea pushed by insurgent outfits \u2014 that Kashmir should be an independent state or join with Pakistan \u2014 has faded as Kashmiris have largely given up the idea of separatism.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Militancy has been \u201creplaced by a deep alienation of the Kashmiri polity,\u201d said Siddiq Wahid, a professor of humanities and social sciences at Shiv Nadar University near Delhi.<\/p>\n The disaffection, coupled with brutish armed forces who show little mercy for innocent Kashmiris in their search for violent ones, could make it easier for new militant groups to emerge, analysts said. It could also impel disgruntled Kashmiris to look away from militant activities, the analysts said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n