In the seventies and eighties, Srinagar bustled with boisterous political debates in cafes and streetcorners. This was replaced with an outburst of insurrection on the streets at the start of the nineties after the dramatic abduction of Rubaiya, daughter of the then home minister, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed. Tens of thousands of Kashmiri youth danced on the roads and bylanes mocking security forces crouching in convoys and sandbagged bunkers. Mosque microphones preached armed insurgency.