Ghaziabad Tragedy Sparks Wake Up Call For Kashmir Families

(MENAFN- Kashmir Observer) The news came in the early hours of February 4, 2026, while Mohsin Bhat ate breakfast with his wife. Their kids had already lost their everyday schedule, and the update made him leave his tea and toast untouched.

That morning, a father in Ghaziabad found that his three daughters had taken their lives, leaving a note that read,“Sorry, Papa.”

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The girls, 14, 17, and 19, had spent long nights on a Korean game.

When Mohsin realized his teen son was staying up late on gaming and trading, he felt a chilling warning.

“If a note like that can land in Ghaziabad, it can land here,” Mohsin told his wife. She checked her inbox, and found three small debits while they slept.

Winter nights are long, and data costs less than a small packet of almonds in the valley. Almost every home has a glowing screen now.

Young Kashmiris now compete with gamers across India, where 507 million people played in 2025, spending 39,800 crore rupees. Analysts say that number could reach 73,000 crore by 2030.

Three out of four Gen-Z kids play at least six hours a week. More than a third play three hours or more a night. Young adults aged 18 to 30 supply 61 percent of real-money trading.

A tenth-grader who calls himself“Z” opens his phone without shame. The other day, he played a battle game till midnight, before logging into a forex app to lose 2,000 rupees.

His father only noticed the debits after the bank froze their account over“suspicious transactions”. Since December, the family lost 46,700 rupees, most of family savings.

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Dr. Yasir Ashraf studies teens in brain scanners. He recently studied 42 kids and found the same“reward light” in their brains lit up for both game wins and cash gains. Homework and sleep quickly disappeared in this“vacational venture.”

The apps promise big returns. You put in 5,000 rupees and suddenly control 500,000. But even a tiny half-percent change can wipe out everything in under a minute. Most small traders lose it all within three months.

“MegaTrade Global, FXKing, and CryptoRush don't have Reserve Bank approval,” says a financial educator in Srinagar.“The Securities and Exchange Board of India has warned about them three times since August. These sites break the law and don't give refunds.”

Meanwhile, Instagram reels show teens holding 500-rupee notes next to cars, with captions like,“Started with 3K, built this in four months. Link in bio.”

Influenced by the same Instagram culture, seventeen-year-old Saif put 5,000 rupees into a trading app before school. A tiny 0.4 percent dip in the pound wiped out his account.

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