When he was not even big enough to understand the term “collateral damage”, Arfat Sheikh’s father became that in Kashmir. A renowned singer and cultural figure, Ghulam Nabi Sheikh was killed in the 1990s by “unidentified gunmen”, a term used in newspapers through the decades when the anti-India insurgency was at its peak in the Himalayan valley and identifying the perpetrators of violence a risky proposition. The grief of losing his father and then never knowing where his remains lay left Sheikh with scars that would not heal. As he grew up in the conflict-torn valley — controlled in part but …

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