In September 2019, apple growers and traders in Sopore, Kashmir, described trying to keep fruit moving during a shutdown while facing threats against trading and pressure to reopen. A September 14 report by Safwat Zargar for Scroll.in recounted a shooting near the town that injured two traders, a fruit grower’s son and a five-year-old child. The report did not establish who the masked attackers were. Its account is a historical snapshot of the 2019 harvest—not a description of current security, market conditions or procurement policy.
What happened near Sopore’s mandi
According to the family’s account reported by Zargar, on the evening of September 6, 2019, Mohammad Ashraf Dar and Mohammad Ramzan Dar were driving near Dangerpora in Sopore with Ramzan’s wife when masked gunmen stopped their car. The men were reportedly taken to the home of prominent fruit grower Haji Abdul Hamid Rather and shot in the legs. Rather’s son, Irshad, and his five-year-old granddaughter, Aasima Jan, were also injured in the ensuing gunfire. The report said the injured were stable and recovering when it was published.
Those details come from interviews and attribution in the Scroll.in report; they should not be mistaken for findings of a new independent investigation. The attackers’ identities were not conclusively established in the article. An injured trader captured that uncertainty: “They could be anyone: army, SOG, militants or police. Will I dare to ask for your identity if you are carrying a gun?” The statement records the trader’s fear and uncertainty; it does not identify the gunmen.
Why trading became dangerous and difficult
The attack came during the 2019 harvest and after the Centre’s August 5 constitutional changes in Jammu and Kashmir, a period marked by movement restrictions and communications disruptions. In Sopore, a civil shutdown and threatening posters and letters affected the fruit mandi. Traders described closures, reopening and renewed shutdowns as they tried to sell perishable produce amid fear and uncertainty.
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Threats against opening stalls
One injured trader recalled the gunmen asking “why we were opening our stalls at the Sopore mandi, why we went to the mandi during the strike,” according to the report. A relative said the gunmen asked, “‘With which leg will you go to the mandi now?” These are reported recollections, not independently verified transcripts. Apple grower Mohammad Dilawar Tantray said the shooting ended hopes of business at the mandi: “That was it. The incident effectively ended hopes of any business being done at the mandi.”
Pressure to keep the market operating
Fayaz Ahmad Malik, president of the Sopore Fruit Mandi Traders Association, said the mandi had closed, reopened and shut again after threatening posters appeared. In his account, growers brought produce at night and auctions ran until roughly 8–10 a.m. Growers also alleged that police and local administrators urged daytime operations, while security forces stopped fruit trucks from moving at night. These are allegations attributed to growers in the report; they do not establish a coordinated policy or uniform conduct by government or security actors.
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Malik described the consequence for growers plainly: “No grower will bring his produce to the mandi amidst this fear.” The report’s central conflict was practical as well as physical: fruit had to be brought to market and sold, but doing so could expose growers and traders to threats, restrictions and violence.
How the harvest shaped the stakes
The Scroll.in report described early-ripening pear and apple varieties as being harvested from mid-August, with peak apple harvest beginning around mid-September and continuing through the end of October; some varieties were harvested into early December. These are seasonal timings reported in 2019, not a current crop forecast. When movement and trading were disrupted during harvest, growers faced the risk that delays would interfere with getting produce to buyers.
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The report characterized Sopore as a major fruit market and the second-largest apple market in Asia. That ranking is the article’s characterization, not a separately verified or current market ranking.
What the 2019 NAFED offer promised—and what it did not show
On September 12, 2019, Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik launched a market intervention price scheme under which the government had tied up with NAFED to buy apples directly from growers. Government statements described the offer as a way to reduce middlemen, provide remunerative prices and avoid mandi fees. The report captured the scheme at announcement stage; the figures below were proposed targets or projections, not verified results.
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| Announced term | What the 2019 report said | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| Procurement target | 12 lakh metric tonnes of apples | A government-announced target reported by Scroll.in in 2019, not a measured purchase total. |
| Intended share of production | Nearly 60% of estimated annual apple production | The government’s stated intended share, not a verified share actually procured. |
| Projected amount for growers | Rs 2,000 crore | A government projection reported in 2019, not a confirmed payment total. |
| Stated payment timing | Within 48 hours of purchase | The announced direct-payment timeline; the report does not establish whether payments met it. |
The offer addressed the terms on which government agencies proposed to buy fruit, but it did not by itself solve the access problem growers described. They remained concerned that they would still need to take fruit to markets, including Sopore, and that insecurity could prevent them from doing so. A procurement announcement is not evidence that produce reached a purchase point, that the target was met or that growers received payment on schedule.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the report establishes—and what remains uncertain
The report documents what traders, growers and relatives said about a specific episode during the 2019 harvest. It reports the police’s statements about arrests and alleged links to Lashkar-e-Taiba, but those allegations do not independently establish who carried out the Dangerpora attack. Nor does the article show that all armed actors, officials or security forces acted together. A former horticulture department official, quoted anonymously, discussed government interest in presenting normalcy; that analysis should not be attributed to a named official.
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A later analysis in Asia Maior provides broader retrospective context on the 2019 lockdown’s effects on transport and agricultural commerce, but it does not independently verify each incident described in the Scroll.in report. The evidence here supports an account of growers’ reported pressures and an announced procurement offer in 2019—not a conclusion about current conditions or the scheme’s eventual performance.
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