For a long time, the resistance against India remained on a non-violent level. But in the year 1987 the armed insurgency was sparked by the alleged rigging of state elections. During the 90s and early 2000s, as the armed resistance movement lived through its pinnacle, the valley witnessed over a decade of gritty war, and with it came a wave of grave human rights violations committed by security forces. Backed by the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), the military would not be held accountable for any of their actions, and put them almost in a state of impunity.

During the 90s and early 2000s, many young kashmiri men was taken by police for interrogations, never to return. Most of them has still not been officially declared dead. These disappearances left thousands of families with a file scuffed away in some drawer, filled with photographs, copies of court statements and Amnesty correspondence. A file once submitting a faint glimpse of hope. Now merely resembling a scar, reminding them of a dark chapter of their lives. What happened to these people and whether they had any affiliation with militant movements or not will never fully be known.

People are cheering as the first pepper bomb explodes in the air. It's the first day of Eid and the morning prayers has just ended. A large group of young men are throwing stones at the police. The police answer with teargas.

Stone peltings have become a natural part of the everyday life in Indian-administered Kashmir. Poorly choosing where to park your car will lead to expensive repairs.

It’s not even five in the morning, but the air feels thick. Burhans body is lying still on the porch surrounded by his immediate family. Around the house, there are hundreds of people, yelling “A-za-di! A-za-di!” “Freedom! Freedom!”. Burhan was the chief commander of the armed group Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, and quickly became a Che Guevara-like figure for the Kashmiri Muslim community.

The same night Burhan is shot, the Indian government has imposed strict curfews throughout the Kashmir valley, and all mobile data has been cut off. Yet, thousands of people are coming from every direction to attend Burhans funeral in his hometown of Dadsara, Tral. By the end of the day, over 200.000 people has defied the curfew to pay their respects. One last affirmation of Burhans significance to the Muslim community of Kashmir.

Umar in ward 16A is not sleeping, he is just keeping his eyes closed. The twelve year old boy was on his way home from a Quran class in Pulwama, south of Srinagar, when he suddenly had a procession of protestors on one of his sides and armed military forces on the other. Umars life will never be the same, and at the hospital he is surrounded by patients with similar damages. Many of them are wearing dark shades – others have their faces wrapped in bandages with huge cotton balls fixed in and around their eyes.

The Indian security forces adopted the pellet gun during the costly unrest of 2010, when more than 100 protestors lost their lives, claiming that it would serve as a suppressing but nonlethal weapon. However, the gun has so far instead proved to cause a disturbingly large demographic of heavily sight impaired or blind Kashmiri youth.