Srinagar: There’s an anti-meat stir in Kashmir. But it’s nothing like what’s sweeping across much of north and western India in the month of Sawan.
The Kashmiris want more meat, not less. They just want it to taste less like rubber.
Standing by a heap of garbage, a furious man clutches a bundle of kebabs. “Even dogs won’t eat these,” he fumed. “This isn’t kebab, it’s rubber.” Disgusted, he tossed the kebabs into the trash.
This was a video by an account Anu_Malik on Instagram posted earlier this month. And it was a response to the rotten meat crisis in Kashmir.
The Valley is outraging over the meat crisis after the Food Safety department launched raids across Kashmir to check meat quality. Inspectors found meat with no labels, putrid stench and synthetic colors. So far, officials said, more than 12,000 kg of meat has been seized. From roadside carts to dhabas and restaurants, food inspectors have been on their toes. Social media feeds and local dailies are flooded with songs, reels and commentary on the scandal. One such headline in a local newspaper read: “For a change, Kashmir’s voracious meat eaters are turning vegetarian.” Another said, “Rotten meat, Rotten trust.”
The Valley, known for its wazwan — a multicourse, traditional and elaborate Kashmiri feast around meat served at weddings and on special occasions. Now, restaurants are registering a sharp drop in customers. And they are now focusing on vegetarian menu options to keep the customers interested. Meanwhile, mobile meat testing vans deployed across the valley have cracked down on some butchers and meat shops who were caught dumping substandard meat into rivers and on roads.
Check posts across Jammu and Kashmir have been activated, and the CM has issued orders to set up testing laboratories at Lakhanpur and Qazigund to screen mutton and chicken entering the Union Territory.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah held high-level meetings in Srinagar, directing the Food Safety department to clean up the trade — but not turn it into a witch hunt.
The Valley, known for its wazwan — a multicourse, traditional and elaborate Kashmiri feast around meat served at weddings and on special occasions. Now, restaurants are registering a sharp drop in customers. And they are now focusing on vegetarian menu options to keep the customers interested
The man at the centre of Kashmir’s crackdown on contaminated meat is Assistant Commissioner, Food Safety Department, Hilal Ahmed Mir.
“We found that the meat in Kashmir was being sold in violation of the Food Safety Act. There was no label on the meat and it was neither bought nor stored in temperature-controlled systems. And since meat is a highly perishable item, we found that it was putrefied and decomposed,” said Mir.
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‘Spreading a disease dangerous to life’
It was a lazy afternoon at the Food Safety office in Srinagar when a call from an auto driver sprung the department into action. The driver had complained of a foul stench coming from the meat he was delivering to restaurants and roadside carts. When Mir’s team arrived with a mobile testing van at Zakura in Srinagar, they discovered a large quantity of rotten meat.
Investigations traced the supply to Sunshine Foods, located in the industrial area of Zakura. An FIR was registered against its owner, Abdul Hameed Kuchay, for selling spoiled and rotten meat in the market. The factory is known for producing several wazwan staples, including goshtaba, rista and kebab. The rotten meat also includes the frozen meat packets sold in the stores.
Police said the case has been filed under sections 271 (spreading a disease dangerous to life), 275 (sale of noxious food or drink) and 61(1) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) at Zakura police station in Srinagar.
The fear of the crackdown triggered a frenzy among store owners and even general people who started getting rid of the meat in their possession—in the water bodies and on roadsides.
“And after this, we went across Kashmir to launch raids. We went to Safakadal, Batmaloo, HMT and deployed our teams in different districts,” said Mir.
The fear of the crackdown triggered a frenzy among store owners and even general people who started getting rid of the meat in their possession—in the water bodies and on roadsides. The government teams have had to comb water bodies and roadsides to dispose of such meat. As part of its action, the department has suspended licenses of over a dozen violators in Srinagar and Anantnag.
“This has at least created awareness in Kashmir,” said Mir’s assistant, seated beside him while compiling data on the raids at the office. “Kashmiris are big meat eaters, but now they are being cautious. People will check before buying.”
Mir also has the responsibility of ensuring this crackdown doesn’t turn into a witch hunt.
“CM sahab told us strictly that we should clean up Kashmir of rotten meat, but ensure there is no witch hunt. There are also good meat stores and we should know how to segregate them,” Mir said.
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Sales collapse, so does trust
Once a bustling food street in Lal Chowk, Batte Galli now lies deserted. The place is popular for its wazwan dishes at affordable rates. A goshtaba sold for Rs 50 and kebabs for as little as Rs 20. Similar substandard meat at low prices, according to local people, was sold in Maisuma and Khayam areas of Srinagar.
“Mostly, people from villages, patients admitted in hospitals, or those who didn’t want a large quantity of meat for guests or even for themselves would come here to buy,” said Mohammad Irfan, a Srinagar resident.
Even the kebab joints along the Boulevard — where youth and tourists savored skewers by the waters of Dal Lake — have now shut down. The officials said the sellers were adding synthetic colors to make the kebabs appear fresh.
“These synthetic colours are bad for human consumption,” said Mir.
The crackdown has dealt a crippling blow to business across the Valley. Babar Chowdhary, president of the Jammu and Kashmir Hotel and Restaurant Association, said the “meat industry has lost half its market since the raids began on 1 August.”
“Mostly, people from villages, patients admitted in hospitals, or those who didn’t want a large quantity of meat for guests or even for themselves would come here to buy,” said Mohammad Irfan, a Srinagar resident.
He said nearly 80 per cent of restaurant sales have collapsed, and with it, public trust. “There were 3–4 distributors who were running this dirty business. They sold rotten meat to street vendors and small shops. Now, it’s the restaurants and eateries that are paying the price.”
Chowdhary went on to say that the dining halls that once bustled with customers now stand empty. “And a few customers who are coming are choosing vegetarian over non-veg,” he added, pegging Kashmir’s meat industry at over Rs 100 crore.
Hilal Ahmed, a butcher in Srinagar, has been selling meat for 30 years. His family has been in the trade for generations. Unlike others, he doesn’t buy pre-packed meat — he buys live hens and slaughters them at his shop.
Despite selling fresh meat, he is feeling the heat of the crackdown as sales have taken a massive hit. “I slaughter the meat at my premises and then sell it. The meat at my shop is fresh. It is done in front of customers,” he said.
Ahmed pointed to a trend that had become a nuisance for genuine sellers: the rise of small shops offering meat at throwaway prices. He blamed it on the lack of slaughter facilities in Kashmir.
“In the last 10 years, we have seen the emergence of these sellers who would sell wazwan items for Rs 50 or Rs 100,” he said. “There is only one slaughterhouse in Kashmir, in Rainawari. If meat sellers go there, they have to queue for days before their turn comes.”
Now, he said, the truth has come out. “Local people would throng to these shops without ever thinking about the quality of such meat. And genuine sellers were ignored.”
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‘Inadequate inspection’
The rotten meat scandal has also put food safety officials under scrutiny, with local people questioning their role. Mir, while on his visit to a district court last week, encountered a judge who left him uncomfortable. The judge asked: “Why didn’t you tell us about the meat situation all these years? Were we eating spoiled meat until now?”
Mir was stunned.
“We do conduct raids every now and then,” Mir said. “But this time it has become big and is all over the newspapers. Sadly, we are being blamed for exposing the rotten meat business.”
Newspapers and social media are slamming the administration. A local daily ran an article headlined: ‘Rotten Meat, Rotten Trust’, blaming lax enforcement and inadequate inspections as the root of the crisis.
On Kashmiri social media, memes are flooding timelines, making fun of those who once boasted about eating meat for both lunch and dinner but are now surviving on collard greens and brinjal
“Inadequate inspections at cold storage facilities and transit points have allowed unscrupulous operators to flourish. Weak licensing oversight has meant that unregistered processors continue to operate unchecked. The lack of a robust traceability system in meat supply chains has made it difficult to pinpoint the source of contamination,” read an opinion article published in the local daily.
On Kashmiri social media, memes are flooding timelines, making fun of those who once boasted about eating meat for both lunch and dinner but are now surviving on collard greens and brinjal.
In one such video on Instagram, radio jockey and comedian Vijdan Saleem poked fun at how newspaper headlines have changed in Kashmir. The video has garnered over 16,000 likes and 750 comments.
“There was a time when people picked up newspapers to read, ‘AK-47 seized, grenades seized’,” he said. “Now they read, ‘six-month-old goat hooves seized in Kupwara’, ‘goshtabas recovered from HMT’, ‘plastic kebabs recovered’.”
(Edited by Anurag Chaubey)