His friends and relatives describe Altaf Ahmad Bhat as a simple man, always anxious to stay out of trouble. The 45-year-old had three young...
His friends and relatives describe Altaf Ahmad Bhat as a simple man, always anxious to stay out of trouble. The 45-year-old had three young children and threw all his energies into running his business, a shop selling construction materials. He had started his business young. On most days, you would find him in his shop off the highway in Hyderpora, an affluent area in the outer reaches of Srinagar.
He had lived all his life in the city’s Barzulla locality. Recently, he moved into a new house he had built near his ancestral home. “His house doesn’t have a proper gate yet as construction work is still going on,” said a relative.
Bhat was an introvert, his relatives say, although he always wore a smile on his face. “Since his shop was on the highway, where there is security round the clock, he would share his tea with the troops deployed near his shop,” said one relative. “He was friendly with them.”
As a resident of garrisoned and barricaded Srinagar, Bhat also feared the police and the army – there was no telling who would be the next victim of security crackdowns or gunfights between militants and armed forces. “He would panic at the...
