Cost of documenting people’s stories of resilience, hope

On April 26, 2025, tourists take pictures at Pahalgam, near the site of the terrorist attack in J&K’s Anantnag district.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Kashmir has remained a challenging beat for a reporter for over three decades now. The fact that over 20 local journalists lost their lives in the line of duty only indicates the danger of reporting from and about Kashmir. The recent Pahalgam terror attack once again posed multiple challenges to reporters on the ground, both physically and emotionally.

A day after the attack, our team left early in the morning for the attack site of Baisaran, located in Anantnag’s picturesque Pahalgam, which was known more for Bollywood shoots. Multiple checkpoints on the way to Pahalgam were set up to search, frisk and check the identities of commuters. Alert security paraphernalia following any major incident is a norm in Kashmir, and reporters follow all the security guidelines as access is granted to the attack site.

However, there was a shift in the security forces’ approach towards the Press this time. Around 42 km from tourist hotspot Pahalgam, Press vehicles were stopped by the security forces at the Khanabal bridge, the only main surface link, over the Jhelum river, to the terror attack site. We were given one option: “return to Srinagar”. There were clear directions that neither tourists nor journalists should be given access to Pahalgam. One can understand the decision to deny entry to tourists, but a bar order for journalists remains inexplicable.

Forced to leave behind our vehicle, we hitchhiked on a two-wheeler and decided to drive through village after village on dusty and dirt lanes to avoid the highway. However, we were again stopped at Yanier, 20 km from the attack site. This time, the message was delivered to us more forcefully: journalists are not allowed to visit Pahalgam for the next two days. “Leave the spot as soon as possible,” the security men guarding the main road said.

Adamant to cover and document people’s stories of trauma, resilience and hope, we decided to stay back till evening. Instead of two-and-a-half hours, it took us 10 hours to reach Pahalgam and then arrange meetings with the saviours and first responders and document their stories of valour and courage.

It was never this difficult in Kashmir to cover the aftermath of an incident, especially where people and eyewitnesses joined hands to condemn the violence against unarmed civilians. Even after two weeks of the incident, there is no formal statement made by any Minister or the civil administration or the security agencies on how many civilians were killed or injured in the incident. It’s with the official records accessed unofficially that the numbers could be reported on that day. It’s this approach that gives rise to speculation, exaggeration, and even under-reporting of the magnitude of the event.

The hardest part of the reporting was documenting the harrowing details of how male tourists were asked to step aside by the terrorists and were shot from close range in front of their children, wives and family members, who were left wailing and crying for help. Penning each case emotionally drains a reporter. Many times, it benumbs. The incident may be over, but the statements of victims and the imagery it left behind keep haunting the minds of reporters for a long time.

Reporting from Kashmir has seen different phases since the 1990s. It was highly dangerous at the peak of militancy when several journalists died in targeted killings, were kidnapped and faced parcel bombs. While it has always been risky to report from the ground, after 2019, journalists’ struggle is of a different kind: access to security officials for confirmation. Except for the elected political class that is available, top security officials and bureaucracy, reporting to the Raj Bhawan, remain reluctant to furnish the details the public has the right to know without any confusion or misrepresentation. The more we create an information blackout, the greater the chances of misreporting. Reporters without official access to information cannot fight the menace of misinformation and disinformation.