'It's an act of hope': the fairytale rise of the Real Kashmir football team
For 90 minutes, while their team plays, people of the war-torn Indian region of Kashmir forget curfews and protests and enjoy normality
Before an away match, Mohammed Hammad used to call his mother in Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir and ask her to pray for the team, Real Kashmir, a football club in the city whose miraculous rise in three years has made football-mad Kashmiris proud.
On Saturday, the team was playing Goa FC at Kalyani stadium outside Kolkata for an important match but he didn’t call his mother. Or rather, he couldn’t.
“Because of the communications lockdown, I couldn’t call her for the prayer. Like everyone else, she is caged inside her home. I don’t even know if my family has enough food and medicines,” said Hammad.
Inside the dressing
