Kashmir plagued by mystery ‘braid-cutting attacks’

A spate of braid-cutting attacks on women near the India-Pakistan border has turned into a “major law and order problem” as locals turn on each other and the authorities.

More than 50 women and girls in India’s Jammu and Kashmir state have been targeted in the last month by an unknown assailant or assailants whose motive remains a mystery.

The first such attack was reported in September, and dozens more have followed in the weeks since.

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“Most women claimed to have fallen unconscious when their braids were chopped off,” Outlook India reports. Similar incidents were reported during the summer in Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan, Quartz reports.

With seemingly little progress made by investigators, some locals in the contested border area have accused the authorities of doing little to track down the culprits.

The braid-cutters are still “roaming freely despite the presence of... army and police personnel”, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, leader of the separatist Hurriyat party, said in a recent statement critical of the authorities.

“We are trying our best to crack these cases and bring those involved in braid chopping case to book,” state Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said on Monday. However, some have accused Mufti of “failing to ‘protect the dignity of women’,” Greater Kashmir reports.

For their part, police have suggested that the victims might have cut off their own hair as a result of conversion disorder. A form of mass hysteria, conversion disorder has been suggested as the reason for the outbreak of bizarre behaviour among young women in 17th century Massachusetts that led to the Salem witch trials.

Street demonstrations have already broken out in some towns affected by the braid-cutting spree. As tensions grow over the failure to apprehend any suspects, protesters “have even resorted to stone pelting on the police and army,” says Firstpost.

A senior police officer in the Kashmir valley told the website how police had had to come to the rescue of two men falsely accused of being braid-cutters. “It is turning out to be a major law and order problem for us,” he said.

The atmosphere of anger and distrust of the authorities has been a boon to anti-Indian insurgents in the region.

One commander in the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, a paramilitary group designated a terrorist organisation by India and the EU, said the braid-cutting was an “Indian ploy” designed to spread fear and urged Kashmiris to overthrow their rulers, says Greater Kashmir.

Police are offering a reward of 600,000 rupees (£7000) for information leading to an arrest.