Budgam, Kashmir: Zainab Begum, a 51-year-old Kashmiri woman, recalled the day her husband was killed when an unexploded shell went off while he was herding cattle in a meadow in the central district of Budgam in the conflict-ridden Kashmir Valley. 

"Twenty-five years and four months ago, my world turned upside down,” said Zainab Begum. “Since that day, my children and I have been living with the pain, crying, and trying to cope with our loss. I became a single mother overnight.”

Tosa Maidan, with a panoramic view of the Pir Panjal mountains, was leased in 1964 by the government of Ghulam Mohammed Sadiq in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) to the Indian army for artillery practice.

The Tosa Maidan Bachao Front (TBF), an advocacy group of victim families and civil rights activists, said in a 2017 petition for compensation in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court that at least 54 had died between 1974 and 2014, including farmers, shepherds, and children.

The TBF said that this number was obtained through a right-to-information (RTI) response from the National Conference government of J&K in November 2013 on lives lost “due to artillery firing”.

In 2017, the high court ordered that the deaths be “verified” by the authority and compensation determined. It also ordered the deputy commissioner of Budgam to “hold an enquiry,” giving people the chance to come forward with their compensation claims.

In 2020, the TBF filed a further petition alleging “non-implementation of the directions passed” by the court regarding compensation.

The union government told the court that it had already “initiated the process for grant of compensation” for four families and had “convened a joint meeting with stakeholders of UT of J&K” to discuss the cases of 18 more families who they identified as having lost someone at the artillery range and qualified for compensation. 

The court ordered, on 16 December 2024, that petitioners should send copies of death certificates for 30 more people who died on Tosa Maidan to the union government and that “after verifying” the documents, authorities are to “process cases for grant of compensation”. 

An earlier affidavit filed by the deputy commissioner of Budgam said that the tehsildar of the area provided a list of 34 dead.

News reports (here and here) and a Land Conflict Watch report have claimed that shell explosions in the area have killed 65 people and injured about 270.

The Hindu Business Line quoted chief minister Omar Abdullah as saying, in a written reply in the state assembly in 2013, that 63 had died and 41 injured in explosions of unexploded ordnance in the maidan since 1965.

The TBF petition also included an excerpt from a 2013 letter from a range officer to the divisional forest officer for the area that said, “almost seventy people have lost their lives, and more than one hundred persons have [been] left handicapped”.

The TBF petition said 63 cattle also died at the firing range, and 41 were injured.

After the tragedy, Zainab Begum decided to sell her cattle and move to Srinagar with her three sons—hoping the capital city's access to officials and the courts would ease her fight for justice.

Zainab Begum, who now lives in Rajouri in the Jammu division, over 214 km from the home she left in Budgam, said nothing came of her efforts. 

"I work as a maid, struggling to provide for them and ensure they get an education,” said Zainab Begum, adding that her son worked as a private cab driver and did not make enough to support the family.

“I hoped that it would be easier in Srinagar to meet officials, go to the courts, and receive justice,” she said. 

"I visited many offices, hoping for help, but nothing came of it. It felt impossible to get anything done. Corruption seemed to be everywhere,” she said. “Initially, I even gave my hard-earned money to officials, hoping they would assist me, but it all amounted to nothing."

Firing Range To Tourist Hub

Once a site of military artillery drills, Tosa Maidan is being transformed into a tourist hub, celebrated for its breathtaking views of the Pir Panjal mountains.

During 2021-2022, 7,638 people visited Tosa Maidan. 

In 2022-2023, a total of 10,921 people visited the destination, 42% more than the previous year, according to an official from the Tosa Maidan Development Authority.

However, for people like Zainab Begum, the meadow remains a grim reminder of loss and unfulfilled promises of justice, but the efforts to seek compensation have been fruitless.

The compensation ordered in 2017 by the J&K High Court is still to be paid seven years later. 

The TBF had sought Rs 2.5 lakh for the families of the deceased, 1.5 lakh for the disabled, and 1 lakh for those injured due to artillery practices, in line with the J&K government’s notification on compensation issued on 19 April 2017.

Even as Tosa Maidan's tragic past is overshadowed by its growing popularity among tourists, the fight for justice continues without any closure for the affected families. 

Article 14 sought comment about compensation from the district magistrate of Budgam, but he did not answer multiple calls and WhatsApp messages. 

The sub-judicial magistrate of the Khag area in Budgam declined to comment, citing a lack of authority.

Article 14 emailed the union home ministry for comment but did not receive a reply when this story was published.

The Fight For Justice

Sheikh Ghulam Rasool, 45, a doctor, has led the TBF in their fight to reclaim Tosa Maidan from the Indian army and seek justice and compensation.

“Today, our goal is to prevent people from reliving their trauma,” said Sheikh. “They deserve a chance to move on. Some families couldn’t even recover the full bodies of their loved ones—only dismembered limbs to bury.”

“We want these people to live stable lives and call on the government to hear our plea. Tosa Maidan, beautiful as it may look now, carries the scars and blood of the innocent,” he said. “Above all, they deserve justice and compensation for their suffering and lost lives."

When we met him on 3 November 2024 at his residence in Srinagar, Rasool was packing his files and readying for court at 10:30 a.m.

 "On average, there are five hearings per year," Sheikh said.

On the last hearing on 12 December 2024, the union government informed the court only four out of 22 families identified as having lost a member in the artillery firing range and qualified for compensation had filed first information reports (FIRs) concerning the deaths.

T M Shamsi,  deputy solicitor general of India, appearing on behalf of the union government said, "The Union of India has already initiated the process for granting compensation to these four families." 

Shamsi said a joint meeting had been held with stakeholders from the union territory of J&K to address the remaining 18 families.

Shamsi requested additional time to report on the steps being taken for the remaining families. In response, the court extended the deadline for filing a detailed status report. 

The court also directed the petitioners’ counsel to submit copies of death certificates for the remaining 30 families within two weeks to check they were “eligible” for compensation.

The next hearing is scheduled for 10 February 2024.

‘The Trauma Haunted Him Until His Death’

Mohammed Abdullah Sheikh, a baker and father of four children, lost both his sons, Farooq and Mushtaq, who were just five and seven when their lives were cut short. 

His brother’s son, nine-year-old Faizan, also died in the incident. 

On 23 December 1993, in the quiet village of Drang Khankah, the three children were playing by a small stream when they spotted an object floating in the water and began throwing stones at it. 

The shell exploded.

Abdullah Sheikh died in 2023 from a kidney ailment, leaving behind his grieving wife, Shah Begum.

“We never found even the smallest piece of their bodies,” said Nazir Ahmed Sheikh, Abdullah Sheikh’s son-in-law.

“He repeatedly visited the site where his two children and nephew perished, desperately searching for any remains to give them a proper burial, but he found nothing,” he said. “The trauma of that day haunted him until his death.”

 "Abdullah would sit by the window, staring at the road, hoping his children would return. But they never did,” Nazir Ahmed Sheikh said. “Shah Begum never stopped crying for her sons, even as she grew frailer with age. They lived as if they had already buried a part of their souls that day.”

The family said they received an initial ex-gratia of Rs 100,000 but could not say when. J&K was under president's rule from 1990 to 1996.

Nazir Ahmed Sheikh said the army and government officials often visited the family, promising justice. However, they added that their efforts had yielded no results, citing a visit in November when officials took their documents and never followed up.

“We have been waiting for justice for so long, but it never comes,” he said. “How many fathers must die with broken hearts before justice is served? Is this what justice looks like, delayed for decades, leaving us to suffer in silence?” 

‘Everything Fell Apart’

It was the summer of 2004 when some neighbours rushed to the home of 39-year-old Mohammed Salam Tantray and told his wife, Zareefa Begum, who was holding their one-year-old child, that her husband had died in an explosion at Tosa Maidan. 

"He was grazing his cattle when he accidentally stepped on a hidden pin. The explosion killed him instantly," said Zareefa Begum, recalling how her life changed overnight.

"When my husband died, everything fell apart. I had to toil to feed my five children—four daughters and a son,” she said. “My mother-in-law resorted to begging just to help us survive. We had no one left but each other, struggling to get by."

Zareefa Begum does Sozni embroidery, a type of intricate needlework particular to Kashmir, mostly on shawls. 

Zareefa Begum said after the death of her husband, the Mufti Mohammed Sayeed-led state government had promised compensation, and even though she submitted all the required documents to the authorities, the money never came. 

“I still work as an embroiderer, but it’s hard to make a decent living—this job hardly earns me enough to get by,” said Zareefa Begum. 

Growing Tourism 

Sheikh Ghulam Rasool said the most tragic part was that the recurring deaths went unreported in the media for decades, so they formed the Tosa Maidan movement in 2008. 

On 8 March 2014, the TBF held a protest in Lal Chowk with thousands of participants. 

The Omar Abdullah-led government closed the Tosa Maidan firing range on 18 April 2014.

"We documented extensively for over six years, beginning in 2008," Sheikh recalled, noting “the impact” of Omar Abdullah's first tenure as the chief minister of J&K from 2008-2014.

During his tenure as chief minister, Omar Abdullah introduced the Right to Information Act, which the TBF said was pivotal in allowing them to obtain the list of the dead and injured, which the state government had.

In August 2014, the Indian Army began an effort to clear unexploded shells.

Yet, at least one death and multiple injuries have been caused by the explosion of old shells in 2018 and 2020.

In May 2016, Mehbooba Mufti, the then chief minister, declared the Tosa Maidan meadow open for tourism activities and inaugurated a three-day festival. 

Locals like Mohammed Ashraf, who runs a grocery store near Tosa Maidan, hope promoting tourism in Tosa Maidan will provide the community with much-needed work opportunities. 

"In the past, people were too afraid to walk in Tosa Maidan,” said Ashraf. “However, that fear has significantly diminished since the firing stopped seven years ago."

In 2022, the chief executive officer of Tosa Maidan, Nargis Suraya, said another sanitation drive would be held “in the entire Tosamaidan area to make the place safer for people.” 

In May 2022, J&K’s lieutenant governor, Manoj Sinha, said that developing Tosa Maidan into a tourist hotspot would create jobs for unemployed local youth. 

The plan for development at Tosa Maidan included water supply systems, building viewing decks and a shelter shed on the Tosa Maidan road and developing a park at Shafanag, a hot spring.

In July 2022, officials said that 95% of the projects at Tosa Maidan were complete, including a tourist reception centre, cafeteria, two single-storey double-bed huts and a toilet block.

‘We Continue To Suffer In Silence’

Abdul Satar Malik, a 77-year-old shepherd from the Shunglipora area of Budgam, recalled the harrowing moment when he found an artillery shell hidden in the grass, which exploded, severing his finger. 

Malik said that despite managing to reach a hospital—after overcoming police harassment and intimidation—efforts to reattach his severed finger were unsuccessful. 

"Now, I live with a small cyst on my finger," he said.

The People's Archive of Rural India, in 2018, reported claims of a death in 1990 and an injury in 2013 on the meadow during “firing exercises”.

Mohammed Ashraf, 41, a farmer, recounted the death of his brother-in-law in a shell explosion during a firing drill at Tosa Maidan in 1998. His six children had to live with their maternal grandfather. 

“Despite submitting all necessary documents to various offices over two decades, the family is yet to receive compensation,” said Ashraf. “It’s a deep injustice, and we continue to suffer in silence."

Malik shared his hope for a better future through tourism in Tosa Maidan.

"If tourism could be developed in Tosa Maidan, it might provide us with a new source of livelihood,” he said. “Although I am getting older and may not have much time left, my children are still young, which could significantly improve their future."

"I used to feel scared whenever my husband went to Tosa Maidan,” said Zareefa Begum, who lost her husband in 2004. “The growing tourism in the area doesn’t matter to me. Every time I see the place, I fear something might explode."

(Sajad Hameed writes on human rights, politics, and technology in South Asia. Qazi Shibli is the editor of The Kashmiriyat, one of the last surviving independent media houses from Kashmir. He is an internationally published journalist whose work focuses on human rights, politics, environment, minority communities, and agriculture. His reporting has received global recognition, with Times magazine listing his detention among the "10 Most Urgent Threats to Press Freedom" in 2019. Shibli has won the Kamaran International Award in 2021, he has been nominated for the Fetisov Journalism Award and was a finalist for the One Young World Journalist of the Year Award in 2023.

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