It was lunchtime, and five escorts ushered me into a cavernous cafeteria, where I drank sugary tea and ate soupy dal.

The carved wooden houseboats on Dal Lake, once popular with tourists, are almost all empty, having had barely a visitor since the trouble began.

Kashmir’s other losses include Anchar Lake, now almost entirely gone, and the famed Dal Lake in Srinagar, which has lost 70 percent of its capacity.