Thread by @nawazqanungo

‘Intuition, telepathy, whatever, that’s the only way you survive this place’

What is it like for news media on ground in Kashmir? These stories and images cover three decades of conflict. Little has changed in the disputed region.

#Kashmir @project_polis
thepolisproject.com/photo-essay-ev…

At #KashmirTimes the teleprinter was on the same line as the phone. I don’t know why you could hear the wireless feed of Police Control Room. Dec 1989, when Rubaiya Sayeed was kidnapped, that’s where I first heard it.
—Meraj ud Din #Kashmir @project_polis
thepolisproject.com/photo-essay-ev…

Firing stopped. I heard a soldier shout: Sir, usko uda doon? Shall I knock him off? I didn’t even realise he was talking about me until I heard his officer’s response: Nahin beta, ho gaya ab. No son, it’s over now.
—@JAVEEDSHAH99 #Kashmir @project_polis.
thepolisproject.com/photo-essay-ev…

The place looked oddly familiar. I looked around and realised the place I was standing in was the burnt-out shell of my old school. I was shaken, stood there for several minutes, my ears ringing, unable to move.
—@daryasin #Kashmir #Witness @project_polis
thepolisproject.com/photo-essay-ev…

Women from the village came and surrounded the truck into which the soldiers were taking us. They literally pulled us out of it, took us out of the hands of the military! It was nothing less than a miracle.
—@javeddar786 #Kashmir #Witness @project_polis
thepolisproject.com/photo-essay-ev…

People were so angry they were ready to lynch us. We ended chased through the village: You only carry Army version. What we say never gets reported.

“Would it be better if we didn’t come to report?” I said.
—@AltafQadriAP

#Kashmir #Witness @project_polis
thepolisproject.com/photo-essay-ev…

There was a straightforward political story, and a personal one. How were they to be put together? That was the real problem.
—@imSumitDayal

#Kashmir #Witness @project_polis
thepolisproject.com/photo-essay-ev…

Hundreds gathered, shouting: Shaheed ki jo mout hai, Woh qaum ki hayat hai. I did not know him. But before he died, he was able to rest in peace in my arms for a moment. Must be the peace India talks about.
—@ShowkatNanda

#Kashmir #Witness @project_polis
thepolisproject.com/photo-essay-ev…

Pellet guns are everything for the police now—it’s a narcotic for them. Sometimes they shoot people in the leg even when stone throwing isn’t heavy, just so that they can identify them later. Sort of tag.
—@shahriyarsyed1

#Kashmir #Witness @project_polis
thepolisproject.com/photo-essay-ev…

Sharpness is overrated. I don’t like photos that are too sharp, or too perfect... or cropped perfectly. Real life and streets are not perfect. It’s the imperfect edges of a photograph that gives it ‘realness’.
—@shahazaan

#Kashmir #Witness @project_polis
thepolisproject.com/photo-essay-ev…