Sanam Bashir (21) collapses with grief at her mother’s funeral. Nargis Begum (45) died from shrapnel wounds after a mortar shell struck while the two were fleeing their home. Uri, Jammu and Kashmir, India.
The Kashmir region has been contested between India and Pakistan since the 1947 partition of British India, a territorial dispute that has fueled decades of conflict. On 22 April 2025, an attack on tourists in Pahalgam killed 26 people. India blamed Pakistan-backed militant groups and responded with strikes on 7 May. Four days of intense cross-border shelling, drone attacks, and airstrikes followed. Thousands of civilians were displaced, dozens killed, and homes and infrastructure along the Line of Control (the de facto border) were destroyed. Widespread international pressure secured a ceasefire on 10 May, averting further escalation between the two nuclear-armed rivals.
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