How hatred killed Kashmir’s rising video star

Amreen Bhat was shot dead by unidentified militants in her village of Hushroo, deep in central Kashmir’s Budgam district on Wednesday. Her family suspect that she was killed for her videos that many found un-Islamic but cannot make sense of the grisly murder.

Two columns of steel jut out of the modest two-storey house – the ground floor in peeling pink paint; the first, still not fully finished, exposing its concrete bones and gleaming new white window frames. It is this storey that Amreen Bhat was building for her family for the past year, with the money she was making from her wildly popular videos on social media, many of which were shot in the backyard of the house, and the green fields of paddy that ringed it. Pushed into work after a troubled marriage and an ailing father, Bhat was determined to change things for the better– a new pucca roof to replace the tin one, a fresh coat of paint for the house, and a life of relative comfort for her family.

TV artist Amreen Bhat. (HT)

That was not to be . Bhat was shot dead by unidentified militants in her village of Hushroo, deep in central Kashmir’s Budgam district on Wednesday. Her family – a father, an elder sister and labourer brother-in-law, and their two children – suspect that she was killed for her videos that many found un-Islamic but cannot make sense of the grisly murder.

“Our home flourished because of her. She was our pillar.Now that she is gone, it’s all over for me,” said her father, Khazir Mohammad, 62, tears rolling down his face.

Outside their house, a makeshift tent welcomed visitors who walked in to express their condolences – its bright blue and red drapes clashing violently with the sombre Mohammad, who, dressed in a brown kurta, stood against the pillar, greeting his guests.

“When her mother died, she took all the burden of the house. I have no son and she took all the responsibility. I can no longer work now,” said Mohammad, an asthma patient.

To many guests, Bhat was a smiling figure whose videos of Kashmiri songs, remixes, lip synched sequences and short skits were a respite from the dreary everyday in a conflict region. Her head was mostly covered, they point out, and many videos carried the text, “Love you ma,” a dedication to her mother, Mughli, who died 14 years ago.

“I would have happily told her to quit if there was any threat or anything. But no one said she shouldn’t act in videos. What did she do wrong?” asked Mohammad.

A village of 1,500people, Hushroo is located deep in the heart of Budgam district. Most residents are paddy farmers and the others work in brick kilns that dot the region due to its famed soil. It is here that Bhat grew up, surrounded by film songs and musicals that her family was fond of.

She dropped out of school after Class 10. Soon after, she started appearing in local dramas aired on Doordarshan.

“Her mother became ill when she was very young in her teens. They had no major source of income; she started working in TV and also recording videos. She was very beautiful and had a very sweet voice,” said a cousin of Amreen’s mother, who requested anonymity.

In 2012, Bhat fell in love with a young man from south Kashmir, but the marriage didn’t last. She divorced him in 2014 and returned to Hushroo. Now home to an ailing father, and a brother who struggled to make ends meet, Bhat started running the household. On the side, she also started shooting short videos of herself dancing to old Bollywood numbers, singing Kashmiri and Hindi songs. Many of them were shot inside the house.

In April 2020, she started experimenting with Instagram. Overwhelmed with the positive response at first, she posted more – short videos, clips of her singing, doing chores, out on walks, skits and funny sequences.

“She earned for her father and her sister’s children. Killing her was so wrong. We never thought that this would happen to her. If she had a brother, there was a possibility that she would not have left home to earn,” said Shameema, a cousin.

As her popularity grew, so did the detractors. Her Instagram profile was littered with comments blaming her for sullying traditions and religion. On her YouTube channel, started five months ago, praise of her acting was peppered with negative comments about her. But her family had no idea it would be her undoing.

At around 7.40pm on Wednesday, two strangers – one with a hidden pistol, walked into the Bhat courtyard and asked her 10-year-old nephew to call her maasi (aunt). A third person was waiting outside on a bike.

As she went out on the verandah, the younger of the two men said he wanted her to come with them as they “wanted to shoot a video”.

“She told them that she does not work with strangers and asked for their address. The men hesitated and the younger man brought out a pistol and shot her in the neck. The child was with her and he was also hit in the arm,” said Mohammad.

As gunshots rang out, Bhat’s sister – Arshida– ran into the house and woke up Mohammad. “Amreen is killed!” she screamed.

“Despite being hit, Amreen was so courageous that she gathered herself and entered her room where she collapsed in a pool of blood,” Mohammad added. Police later said that three terrorists belonged to proscribed outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The gruesome killing has shocked Hushroo into silence. “We were working in the fields and saw nothing. They killed a human being as if they killed humanity,” said a woman sitting in the tent.

A bitter Mohammad could only remember his daughter with regret. “If somebody had only given us a hint, I would have forced her to leave this work. Still I told her many times to stop doing these videos but she told me that she is doing nothing wrong,” he remembered.

To him, she was many things. The confident woman who refused to stop doing what she liked and earned from, the successful entrepreneur who managed clients and travelled to Delhi and Dehradun for shoots, and the dutiful daughter who started taking her father to Jammu for six months to help improve his chest congestion, and paid for all medical treatment. But to her 27,000 followers on Instagram, and another 15,000 on YouTube, she was all this and more: Videomaker, entertainer, singer.