In what officials described as a targeted anti-militant operation, security forces used explosives to blow-up nine houses allegedly linked to militant activities in Jammu and Kashmir last week, after 28 civilians, mostly tourists, were killed in a terror attack in Baisaran meadow near Pahalgam on April 22, 2025.
However, an investigation by Kashmir Times reporters on the ground reveals significant collateral damage that has gone largely unreported in official accounts. According to local residents, scores of adjoining properties belonging to families with no connection to militancy were either severely damaged or completely demolished during the operation, leaving many families shelterless.
These demolitions were carried out without any formal notice, violating the Supreme Court's order that prohibits destroying homes without proper legal procedure and rules against collective punishment to families. No official statement was given by the police or the army.
In Wandina village in Shopian district, the security forces targeted alleged militant, Adnan Shafi’s house and blasted it with explosives. Around 10 houses in the neighbourhood were also torn apart by the blasts.
Local residents in Murran village of Pulwama district said that a massive explosion, where security forces blew up the house of an alleged Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) member, Ehsan-ul-Haq, on Friday, also damaged the houses of at least ten neighbours. Cracks were formed in the walls, windows were shattered, and roofs collapsed.
Families who had spent decades building their homes were left with nothing. Innocent villagers — farmers, labourers, elderly parents, children — found themselves suddenly homeless.
These stories are not unique. In an extensive ground investigation, the Kashmir Times documented at least 20 neighbouring properties in the two villages of Wandina and Murran - 10 each. These were verified on the ground. In reports from other villages where alleged militants’ houses were similarly blown up, several adjoining houses were damaged. These, however, could not be ascertained by the Kashmir Times.
Homeless, Hungry and Cold
45-year-old Fareeda Akhter stood quietly in front of what was once her home in Wandina village, Shopian. Her house had been demolished on 26th April during a security operation after the April 22 attack in Pahalgam.
After the house of Adnan Shafi, who is reported to have joined militant ranks last year, was blasted, Fareeda's house now has cracks in the walls, broken windows, and not a single door left.
Inside the broken house, pieces of wood, glass, and roof tiles lay scattered on the floor. The small kitchen where Fareeda used to cook rice and tea is now filled with dust and stones. There was no door to close, no bed to sleep on, and no cupboard to keep anything safe.
Her four children sat on a mat in one corner, shivering from the cold breeze that entered freely through the cracks. “Every time I look at my children, I feel helpless,” Fareeda said softly.
“They ask for food, for warmth, and I have nothing to give.”
She had not cooked a proper meal in three days. Their neighbours, also poor, were trying to help, but they had very little themselves.
Fareeda’s husband, Subzar Ahmad, a daily wage labourer who earns only when he finds work, had gone out that morning to look for help.
“He has pain in his legs, but he still walks for hours just to ask someone for some rice or lentils,” Fareeda said, her hands trembling. “I get these bouts of dizziness after the incident," she said, adding after a pause, “... .maybe it’s weakness or stress. I don’t know.”
Their small savings were gone, spent on food and medicine. They had no place to wash, no place to pray in peace. “We are just sitting and waiting—waiting for someone to notice us, to ask us what happened, to offer some support,” she said, wiping a tear rolling down her cheek.
Shortly, Sabzar Ahmad Dar returned, complaining of aching legs and grumbling about a stiff back due to sleeping on cold floors. “I built this house with my own hands,” he later said, standing near what remains of their home. “For 10–15 years, I carried bricks, dug mud, and lifted stones. Every rupee I earned went into these four walls. It was a small house, but it was our world. And now… look at it. Broken, scattered, silent.”
He paused and looked at his four children—sitting on a torn mat under a plastic sheet. His eyes didn’t water, but his face bore signs of pain.
“For three days, I have walked from door to door, just to find a place to sit, to feed my children a hot meal. What else can I do?” he said in utter resignation.
Fareeda sat beside him, silent, her eyes on the ground. There were no words left between them, just a heavy silence.
‘It feels like we are dead…’
As Sabzar spoke, another man quietly stepped forward. Introducing himself as Imtiyaz Ahmad, one of the other nine houses damaged belonged to him.
“The government should look into this,” he said, glancing at the ruins around him. “If one person is a terrorist, how can ten families be punished for that? What about the rest of us? Are we not citizens too?”
His voice cracked with emotion.
“Our homes — they were everything to us. Now they are nothing but broken walls and shattered glass.” He paused, looking toward the sky, perhaps searching for an answer.
“It feels like we are dead while living. Since yesterday, we have had nothing — no rice, no food, no money. Just dust and silence.”
Imtiyaz, a labourer like Sabzar, said, “We are three brothers. All of us work when we find it. I am already unwell. And I have daughters to marry. Where will I go now?” as he gently pointed to the pile of bricks where his home once stood.
“What was our fault?” he repeatedly asks.
The house of Zaina Banu, a 75-year-old homemaker, was also damaged, said that two of the explosives used to blast the militant’s house were placed very close to her house. “Now it is a broken house and broken hearts.”
“I have a specially-abled family member to care for. He cannot work anymore. What am I supposed to do? We have no connection to militancy—why are we being punished?” she asked, as she endlessly listed the many challenges she navigates.
Her voice broke as she spoke about her health. “I suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure, and swelling in my stomach. I am elderly now, and so is my husband. If he doesn’t get his medicines on time, I might not survive. What future do my daughters have?”
For 70-year-old Mohammad Abdullah Dar, a farmer, it is the end of everything. He spent a lifetime building the house by selling land and taking loans. Standing amidst the scattered remains of what was once his home, he takes a while to break his silence with a one-liner: “Now it’s over.”
The neighbourhood was caught in the grip of an eerie silence that epitomised a profound sense of shock and pain. A woman emerged from the debris of her house. She recalled the fateful day with a shudder when security forces came to the area and asked them to vacate their houses, followed by the blast.
“When we entered our house, we couldn’t even tell whether it was fire or just light before our eyes,” she said, trying to hold back tears. “If one family is guilty, what did the other families do to deserve this?” she said, unable to comprehend why she has been punished.
Some villagers said that explosions took place for two consecutive days at the same spot damaging more houses.
9 Houses of Wanted Militants Blasted
Following the deadly militant attack in Pahalgam, security forces in Kashmir have significantly intensified their crackdown on suspected militants. As part of these operations, at least nine houses allegedly linked to individuals involved in militancy have been demolished.
The crackdown began on Thursday night with the demolition of the family home of Adil Ahmad Thoker, identified by police as one of the key perpetrators of the Pahalgam assault, in Bijbehara. In the days that followed, targeted demolitions were carried out across the Valley, focusing on the residences of 8 other known or suspected militants in Murran and Daramdora in Pulwama, Matalhama, Kulgam, Chotipora (Shopian), and Kalaroos, Kupwara.
While there has been no official statement from either the police or the Army regarding these demolitions, official sources indicate that the militants targeted were affiliated with proscribed outfits such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen.
Cracked Walls in Pulwama
In Pulwama’s Murran area, residents said that the explosion was so powerful it caused widespread damage to nearby homes. Many houses developed cracks, and window panes were shattered due to the shocks of the blast.
“All of us were told to move to safer places before the explosion. But when it happened, it left cracks in almost every house around,” said a woman, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
At least 10 houses had suffered damages with major cracks in the walls, broken windowpanes and doors and in some cases, the roofs had partially collapsed. Locals said that the explosion caused the debris to fly in all directions, hitting the adjoining houses.
Visibly shaken, the residents in the village said that the blast felt like an earthquake. Four days after the incident, the village looked like a mirror image of the impacted Wandina neighbourhood.
The families impacted by last week’s destruction said that there has been no community response so far to help them. “People are scared that collecting money for affected families might be misinterpreted as terror funding,” a man whose house was damaged said.
There has also been no official announcement from the government regarding compensation or rehabilitation for families whose homes were damaged or destroyed.
In Defiance of SC Ruling
The demolition of houses in Kashmir without serving show-cause notices to the owners has raised serious concerns, especially in light of the Supreme Court's recent judgement, terming them illegal. The Court emphasized that the right to shelter is a fundamental right and forms an essential part of the Constitution’s basic structure.
The Supreme Court ruled that demolishing a citizen’s property solely because they are accused or convicted, without following due legal process, is unconstitutional. It stated that the executive cannot assume the role of judge and punish individuals by destroying their homes.
The Court also emphasized that such actions unjustly affect innocent family members—like spouses, children, or parents—who may co-own or reside in the property, calling it a violation of the right to life and a form of anarchy that undermines the rule of law.
Yavar Ramzan, a lawyer at the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, while speaking to Kashmir Times, highlighted the legal and moral implications of demolishing residential homes in connection with alleged criminal acts of individuals.
Quoting Justice Gavai from a recent demolition case, Ramzan said, “To have one’s own home, one’s own courtyard – this dream lives in every heart. It’s a longing that never fades, to never lose the dream of a home.”
He further emphasized that Indian criminal jurisprudence has evolved from focusing solely on punishment (penology) to recognizing the rights and dignity of victims (victimology).
“It rejected the theory of community guilt and collective punishment and instead lays down that no man shall be punished except for his own guilt,” he said.
“Demolition of any structure wherein number of persons of a family or a few families reside only on the ground that one person residing in such a house is either an accused or convicted in the crime, amounts to inflicting a collective punishment on the entire family or the families residing in such structure.”
The recent actions resulting in colossal damages to adjoining houses demonstrates an extended collective punishment.
Sweeping Detentions
The demolition of houses is part of major security operations being conducted across the Valley in the aftermath of the Pahalgam killings.
2000 people have been detained for questioning, as per official estimates. 175 detentions were reported in Anantnag district alone.
Extensive raids and cordon-and-search operations are ongoing, particularly in districts like Anantnag, Pulwama, and Doda, targeting suspected militants and their support networks, an official said.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has taken over the investigation. Security has been beefed-up, including additional checkpoints and increased patrolling.
Inspector General of Police (Kashmir) V K Birdi confirmed that 75 people have been booked under the PSA, a preventive detention law allowing incarceration without formal charges for up to two years.
Raids are continuing across Kashmir, and most recently on Thursday, police raided 21 locations in Srinagar as part of a major crackdown on militant associates under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), aiming to gather evidence and dismantle the terror support network in the region.
A police spokesperson said in a statement that Srinagar Police conducted searches at the residences of several individuals involved in various terror-related cases.
(The identity of the reporter of this story has been withheld due to fear of potential reprisal.)
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