Betrayal And Blood: The New Face Of Crime In Kashmir

By Peer Mohammad Amir Qureshi

There was a time when a single murder, even far away in the mainland, would shake this valley. People would whisper:“Neabri che Na Ek Nafran Moarmut Nafar.” One human has slain another.

News carried weight, piercing the collective conscience. The skies seemed to bleed with grief:“Azi che Asmaan Wazul.”

Today, that distant horror has arrived at home.

In 2025, crime in Kashmir has surged. Reports of rapes, murders, and betrayals come from every part of the valley. Even Ganderbal, long celebrated for calm streets and pastoral serenity, faces rising violence.

The National Crime Records Bureau shows that criminal incidents across Jammu and Kashmir, including rape, murder, theft, and domestic violence, have increased steadily. Family disputes, friendships turned fatal, and minor quarrels escalating to murder reflect a breakdown of moral and social norms.

In July, Safapora in Ganderbal was shaken by the murder of a 28-year-old mother of two. She had gone to her brother-in-law for what was reported as a dental emergency. Investigations revealed a brutal truth: he lured her under false pretenses, assaulted, and killed her in an isolated field.

The community protested, demanding justice. Police arrested the accused within a day. The incident raised a haunting question: when the home can no longer protect, where is safety?

In August, a 17-year-old girl killed her 14-year-old sister near Batsar-Sehpora. She first claimed they had been abducted, but investigators uncovered the truth: a dispute over a lost watch escalated into fatal violence.

Families across Kashmir struggled to comprehend how a sibling bond could be transformed into an instrument of death.

In September, Ganderbal faced another betrayal. Ajaz Ahmed Rather, 22, was killed by friends after a cricket match argument. They strangled him with a wire and dumped his body in a canal to stage an accident.

Local journalist Hadi Hidayat described the grief: women wept, families cried, even police could not hide their pain. He wrote,“Some stories pierce straight into the heart.”

Trust had been shattered. Friendship, once sacred, became lethal.

These cases raise pressing questions. Are perpetrators, especially juveniles, receiving appropriate punishment?

NCRB data shows that juveniles in conflict with the law in Jammu and Kashmir rose from 171 in 2020 to 361 in 2022, contrary to the national trend.

How should society respond to a minor capable of murder?

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