Another Season of Unrest Brings Darkness for Ordinary Kashmiris

Umar, just 12 years old, sits up in his bed at Sri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) hospital in Srinagar, the main city of the Indian half of disputed Kashmir, straightens his back and slowly turns his head from left to right, as if surveying the other patients. Like Umar, most are wearing dark glasses. Some have their eyes covered with cotton and white surgical bandages that contrast sharply with the blue and purple swelling around their foreheads, eyebrows, noses or ears.