{"id":49397,"date":"2025-05-25T19:43:32","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T23:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/media-adds-agony-to-kashmiri-familys-grief\/25\/05\/2025\/"},"modified":"2025-05-25T19:43:32","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T23:43:32","slug":"media-adds-agony-to-kashmiri-familys-grief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/media-adds-agony-to-kashmiri-familys-grief\/25\/05\/2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Media adds agony to Kashmiri family’s grief"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Farooq Ahmed still bristles with anger when he talks about his brother’s death.<\/p>\n

Mohammad Iqbal, a resident of Poonch city in Indian-administered Kashmir, died in cross-border shelling on 7 May, the morning after India launched a series of air strikes<\/a> in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir in retaliation to a militant attack in the town of Pahalgam that killed 26 people. Pakistan has denied having any role in the attack.<\/p>\n

Mr Ahmed says that Iqbal died where he had worked for more than two decades – Zia-ul-Uloom, a madrassa, or a religious centre focused on Islamic teachings, in Poonch.<\/p>\n

But his death, it turned out, was just the beginning of the family’s troubles.<\/p>\n

As the news spread, several media channels falsely accused Iqbal of being a terrorist, following which the police put out a statement refuting the claim.<\/p>\n

“My brother was a teacher but they saw his beard and skullcap and branded him a terrorist,” Mr Ahmed says.<\/p>\n

“It was like having salt rubbed into our wounds. We had lost Iqbal and then the media defamed him. The dead can’t defend themselves.”<\/p>\n

Indian officials say that a total of 16 people, including Iqbal, were killed in the cross-border shelling during the four-day military conflict that broke out between India and Pakistan following the airstrikes.<\/p>\n

Pakistan has claimed 40 civilian deaths, though, it remains unclear how many of these were directly caused by the shelling.<\/p>\n

The two nuclear-armed countries have shared a tense relationship for decades, as both administer the Himalayan region of Kashmir in part, but claim it in full<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They have fought three wars over Kashmir since independence from Britain in 1947 and came back from the brink of another one <\/a>earlier this month.<\/p>\n

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