School-leaving students who belong to poor families are left staring at significant expenses to travel to exam centres, many of which are over 600 kilometres from their hometowns.

The police claim that the 35-year-old shopkeeper had incited violence after an elderly woman died in the accident, but Bashir Ahmad Bhat’s family says he has no history of trouble-making.

The roughly 1,500 houseboats that could be found across the Dal and Nigeen Lakes and the Jhelum even a decade ago have now been reduced to fewer than 850.