Feature

2021 in pictures: Dichotomy and diktats

Armed forces personnel petrol near a military operation site in the outskirts of Srinagar on 28th June, 2021. [FPK File Photo/Zainab]

The year passed with COVID taking away more lives in Kashmir, gun battles and military operations raging on, and killings continuing unabated.

209 Kashmiris were killed due to conflict related violence, over 130 properties were damaged, and 127 instances of internet shutdowns were seen.

The year saw 1,197 people being arrested, including human rights activists and political leaders.

New Delhi brought in more laws about land transfers in an attempt of apparent industrialisation, while politics in all forms remained scuttled, barring one exception.

The main religious center, Jamia Masjid was forced shut for a major part of the year.

Veteran Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani passed away and the valley remained on the edge amidst imposition of more restrictions.

Serious allegations of extra judicial killings by the armed forces surfaced, but civilian killing by unidentified gunmen remained the focus of Delhi Media.

All major business sectors remained negatively impacted even as the year ended on ‘record tourism’ claims.

Diktats brought in democracy, and dichotomy ruled the roost.

Rest, in pictures…

 

A forces personnel is seen sanitizing a bunker of a CRPF Camp in Maisuma, Srinagar on 25th April, 2021. [FPK Photo/Zainab]

In Spring, as Kashmir witnessed peak in Covid cases, and was soon to enter lockdown, the valley faced a shortage of COVID vaccines. A signage indicating the same is seen pasted on the door of a Primary Health Centre in Srinagar’s Mahrajgunj on 29th April, 2021. [FPK Photo/Zainab]

Zehra and Zairaabi, cousins, pose for a photograph in a mosque compound on the day of Eid on 13th May, 2021. The congregational Eid prayers were disallowed by the authorities across various mosques and Eidgahs in Kashmir stating the pandemic as reason. [FPK Photo/Zainab]

Women and children take shelter in a saw mill as the houses in the neighbourhood were cordoned off during a military operation in Maloora, located in Srinagar outskirts. In the 13 hour long military operation that started on 28th June, 2021, two militants were killed and a house was partially destroyed. [FPK Photo/Zainab]

At Kashmir Press Club, journalists held a candlelight vigil in the memory of Reuters photographer Danish Siddiqui on 18th July, 2021. Danish was killed in Afghanistan on 16th July, 2021 while covering clashes between Afghan forces and the Taliban. [FPK Photo/Zainab]

In the aftermath of a grenade attack in Srinagar’s Hari Singh High Street Market, an injured civilian is being taken for medical examination in SMHS hospital on 10th August, 2021. Seven people were injured in the attack. [FPK Photo/Zainab]

Shia mourners disperse as the smoke from tear gas canister rises. On 17th August, the mourners were disallowed to carry out the 8th Muharram procession and were met with shelling by the police in Srinagar. [FPK Photo/Zainab.]

The grave of veteran Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani who died at his home in Hyderpora on 1st September, 2021. Geelani spent the last decade of his life under house detention, and was hurriedly buried by the authorities in the dead of the night in a local Hyderpora graveyard that remains under survelliance till date. [FPK Photo/Zainab]

An armed forces personnel stands deployed outside the shop of noted pharmacist M L Bindroo, shortly after he was shot dead on 5th October, 2021. [FPK Photo/Zainab]

Wahid, 8, reacts after his house was destroyed in a military operation in Shopian’s Tulran village on 12th October, 2021. Five militants were killed in twin military operation in Shopian on 11th and 12th October and 4 houses were partially destroyed. [FPK Photo/Zainab]

A devotee sits in protest on the porch of Srinagar’s locked up Grand mosque, Jamia Masjid on 15th October, 2021 where congregational Friday prayers have been disallowed since last 21 weeks. [FPK Photo/Zainab]

Locals try to catch last glimpse of the slain civilian Shahid Aijaz as his body is being carried for burial from his home in Arwani on 24th October, 2021. Shahid was killed near a CRPF camp in Zainpora Shopian on the morning of 24th, on his way to home from work [FPK Photo/Zainab]

The aftermath of the sit-in at Srinagar’s Press colony on 17th November, 2021, when the family members of those killed in controversial Hyderpora military operation were detained for demanding the dead bodies of their kin. The bodies of the two of the four slain, Altaf Ahmed and Dr. Mudasir Gul were then exhumed and returned to the families on 18th November, 2021. [FPK Photo/Zainab]

An armed forces personnel photographs his colleague as he frisks a local at Lal Chowk, Srinagar on 3 December, 2021. [FPK Photo/Zainab]

Mehnaz, and her son, Ahmik, attend the Christmas eve prayers at Holy Family catholic Church in Srinagar on 24th December, 2021. [FPK Photo/Zainab]

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