Kashmir’s Fruit and Vegetable Markets Stage Valley-Wide Protests Against Pahalgam Carnage

Ziraat Times Team Report

Srinagar: In a strong display of unity and grief, all major fruit and vegetable markets across Kashmir Valley remained closed and held protest demonstrations today, condemning the brutal terrorist attack on tourists in Pahalgam earlier this week.

The protests come in the aftermath of the April 22 attack, where indiscriminate gunfire claimed the lives of several tourists and left many others injured at the famed Baisaran meadow in Pahalgam.

Leading the protests were presidents of key fruit markets, including  Bashir Ahmad Basheer (Fruit Mandi Parimpora, Srinagar), Fayaz Ahmad Malik (Sopore), Muhammad Ashraf Wani (Shopian),  Ghulam Muhammad Banday (Kulgam), and several others from districts across South, North, and Central Kashmir.

Markets in Baramulla, Handwara, Char-e-Shareef, Shopian, Pulwama, Anantnag, Jablipora, Pachhar, Zazna Ganderbal, and more were shut on Wednesday (April 23) and remained inactive on Thursday (April 24) as protest marches and processions were carried out.

“All fruit growers and dealers of the Valley strongly condemn this barbaric act,” said Bashir Ahmad Basheer, Chairman of the Kashmir Valley Fruit Growers Cum Dealers Union and President of the New Kashmir Fruit Association. “This cowardly attack on innocent tourists is nothing short of an attack on humanity itself.”

Demonstrators carried placards expressing solidarity with the bereaved families and called for peace to prevail in the region. Market representatives offered prayers for the speedy recovery of the injured and emphasized that Kashmiris share in the sorrow of the victims’ families.

“There is a wave of pain and anger across the Valley. Kashmiris stand with the victims and their loved ones. Our hearts ache, and we want the world to know that this violence has no place in our society,” the protest leaders stated collectively.

The mass shutdown and protests by the Valley’s agricultural community come amid broader civil society outpourings of grief, with business bodies, hoteliers, and civil organisations echoing condemnation and reaffirming Kashmir’s tradition of peace and hospitality.