Suhail Dar
Sitting beside her critically injured son in the Intensive Care Unit of SKIMS Soura, the mother of Owais Khan is reliving her worst nightmare on repeat. One son is battling for his life; the other has already left this world.
And between hospital corridors and silent prayers, she finds herself making a plea she never imagined: asking people to stop turning her family’s grief into viral content.
On Monday evening, 20-year-old Owais Khan lost his life in a tragic road accident while traveling with his younger brother, Usman, towards their maternal home in Anzwal, Anantnag. Usman survived the crash but remains in critical condition.
“As a mother, I don’t have the words,” she said softly, pausing to glance at her unconscious son. “Usman keeps asking for his phone. He wants to talk to Owais. He doesn’t know what has happened. How do I tell him his brother is gone?”
But alongside the unbearable task of caring for one son while mourning another, she faces another cruelty: the constant circulation of graphic videos and photos of Owais on social media.
“With tears in my eyes and immense pain in my heart, I beg everyone—please stop sharing his videos and pictures,” she said. “Every time I see another post, it’s like the wound is torn open again. Please don’t add to our suffering. Please respect our Owais and our grief.”
In recent years, tragedies in Kashmir have increasingly been accompanied by a troubling trend of “engagement farming”—where heart-wrenching moments are turned into shareable, often graphic, content to drive clicks, likes, and views.
For grieving families, this means their most private, painful moments are consumed as public spectacle.
“What we really need are your prayers,” the mother said. “Pray for Owais’s soul. Pray for Usman’s recovery.”
As Usman continues to fight for his life and his family clings to hope, the mother’s plea is a reminder of the human cost behind every viral post—a cost too easily ignored in the race for attention online.
- News Deskhttps://thekashmiriyat.co.uk/author/kashmiriyat/
- News Deskhttps://thekashmiriyat.co.uk/author/kashmiriyat/
- News Deskhttps://thekashmiriyat.co.uk/author/kashmiriyat/
- News Deskhttps://thekashmiriyat.co.uk/author/kashmiriyat/
