India's Kashmir Policy Pushed Stone Pelters To Become Militants, Say Families scroll.in

When 25-year-old Sajad Ahmad Gilkar stepped out on the morning of June 29, 2017, his family did not know he had deliberately left behind his cell phone and watch at home. “He had to go to court for a hearing that day,” recalled Naseema Bano, Gilkar’s mother. “He had got so tired of these court appearances that he joked about renting a room near the court complex in Tengpora.”

Gilkar had to attend regular court hearings in a slew of cases against him. According to police records, he was a “chronic” stone-pelter and participant in pro-freedom demonstrations that routinely broke out in Nowhatta, a neighbourhood close the Jama Masjid in Srinagar’s old city. His family still live in an old-fashioned mud and brick townhouse in Nowhatta.