Reporters Without Orders Ep 375: Four deaths and no answers in Kashmir and reclaiming Buddha in Bihar

This week, host Sumedha Mittal is joined by The Caravan’s Sunil Kashyap, and Jatinder Kaur Tur.

Jatinder reports from Kashmir, where three bodies of locals who were in police detention surfaced in the Veshaw River. Following the Pahalgam terror attack, Kashmiris felt being suspected and criminalised. Amid rampant arrests and deaths, families like that of Nazir Ahmad Magray – whose 20-year-old son was taken in a night raid by the Jammu and Kashmir Police’s Special Operations Group – have been left shattered.

“We are talking about three brothers [and one man] who went missing and there was no believable story from the police. It is said that they drowned in Veshaw river or naala, which was completely dry and no one could have drowned there,” says Jatinder.

Meanwhile, Sunil's report uncovers an unseen, unheard truth from Bihar. At Bodh Gaya’s Mahabodhi Mahavihara – a sacred Buddhist site – Buddhist monks and Dalit-Bahujan groups are protesting the Bodh Gaya Temple Act of 1949, which mandates Hindu involvement in managing the temple. This stems from centuries of Hindu appropriation of the site, despite its centrality to Buddhism. “The Hindu Sangh sees Buddhism, not Islam, as its biggest ideological challenge,” says Sunil.  

Watch.

Timecodes

00:00:00 - Introduction

00:01:02 - Kashmir police silences questions as bodies emerge from the Veshaw River

00:20:59 - The Bodh Gaya Protest

00:45: 37 - Recommendations

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Produced and edited by Saif Ekram and Tista Roy Chowdhury, recorded by Anil Kumar.