Kashmiri Pandits flag graveyard en route to Shankaracharya Hill, says ‘cropped up suddenly’

Kashmiri Pandit groups on Sunday (October 25, 2026) objected to the J&K government-approved construction of a small graveyard en route to the Shankaracharya hill in Srinagar and claimed it has “suddenly cropped up”.

“During my lifetime, I haven’t heard of this mazaar [graveyard] on Shankaracharya Road leading to the Shankaracharya Temple in Srinagar. Has it suddenly cropped up or it existed there? I asked my senior frequent childhood visitors to the temple like Utpal Kaul and others, but they also denied. I know the whole land to the left and right belongs to social forestry,” said Ravinder Raina, who heads the Save Sharda Committee, in a post on X. The post evoked a barrage of tweets from the community and sparked demands to stop construction work at the site.

Utpal Kaul, another Kashmiri Pandit activist, said he has been going to Shankaracharya hill with Shiva temple every Sunday from 1965 to 1990. “I have not seen any mazaar. According to Rajatarangini, this hill was known as Gopadetirth. But Shankaracharya meditated there. It was known as Shankaracharya hill temple,” said Mr. Kaul.

The J&K administration’s Roads and Buildings (R&B) department, in an order on September 12 this year, had approved ₹44.37 lakhs for “improvement of Astan Aliya Syed Usman Sahib on the way to Shankaracharya road”.

“For and on behalf of the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir UT, the contract for the work is hereby allotted in favour of Ms. Aziz Kashmiri & Co. Prop...The work should be executed strictly in accordance with the terms and conditions as laid down in the NIT/Agreement and in accordance with the specifications as contained in the Book of Specifications published by the MoRT&H/IRC (Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and the Indian Roads Congress, New Delhi(Latest Edition) for this type of work,” reads the order.

However, the opinion about the graveyard is divided between the Muslims and Hindus of the Valley. Hakim Sameer Hamdani, a well-known author, said, “A bit of understanding would make it clear that the design and the motif of the tombstones is from the Sultanate period, and it somewhat persists till late Mughal and early Afghan rule. Anyway, history, especially art history, doesn’t count for much these days.”