Before conflict recast Kashmir in the world’s imagination, the Valley was renowned for its houseboats, ski slopes, and cinematic landscapes, attracting travellers from Europe, America, and across Asia.

A trip to Kashmir once began with the clink of crystal glasses aboard flights from London or Paris rather than security briefings. Wealthy Europeans compared notes on the Valley’s ski slopes; American backpackers swapped hand-drawn maps to villages nobody back home had heard of. In the summer of 1989, few could have imagined that this world was about to disappear.

Before the insurgency, Kashmir was one of Asia’s premier tourist destinations. Through the late 1970s and the 1980s, its hotels and houseboats were teeming over in the summer. More than a thousand houseboats floated serenely on Dal Lake, operating at full capacity, with waiting lists during the peak season.

European skiers had discovered Gulmarg long before heli-skiing became a thing. Backpackers from the old Hippie Trail detoured through Srinagar before heading to Ladakh or Nepal. Bollywood, too, had fallen for Kashmir’s lakes, gardens, and meadows, immortalising them in hundreds of Hindi movie songs.