SRINAGAR: A wave of brutal panic has swept India-held Kashmir after more than 100 women said they were victims of attackers who chopped off their hair.

Despite suggestions the cases may have been fabricated or fuelled by hysteria, the consequences have been all too real.

One 70-year-old man has been killed by vigilantes since the alleged incidents began a month ago, and there are near-daily reports of groups attacking suspected so-called “braid-choppers”.

Vigilantes carrying iron rods and knives patrol towns after dark, looking for suspects

Authorities have avoided confirming or denying the accounts of women from across the disputed Himalayan region, which bears deep mental scars from a decades-old uprising against Indian rule.

Groups armed with iron rods and knives patrol Srinagar and other towns after dark looking for suspects.

Five people were wounded on Wednesday when Indian soldiers opened fire on a stone-throwing crowd who thought troops were protecting a braid-chopper.

On Friday, police said they rescued a “mentally challenged” man accused by a mob that was trying to set him ablaze and run him over with a tractor. At least a dozen police and soldiers have been beaten up.

Police initially said that hair-chopping was self-inflicted. Now they are offering a Rs600,000 reward for information leading to the capture of suspects, but they also want the victims to take lie-detector tests.

The details of the alleged attacks are often mysterious and difficult to verify, while witnesses are hard to find.

Tasleema told how she was going to fetch vegetables in storage when she was attacked. Her husband, Mohammad Rauf Wani, heard a scream and found his wife unconscious on the floor with six inches of her hair spread out next to her.

“I don’t understand how it happened,” Wani said, holding his wife’s severed braid.

Most of the women were alone and have told relatives they suspect a spray was used to knock them unconscious before their braids were cut. Most were under 18 and come from poor families, according to police.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2017