TREHGAM: Azaan (the call to prayer) in Jamia Masjid Trehgam and the chiming of bells in Shiv Temple often sound concurrently in north Kashmir’s Trehgam village, 115km northwest of Srinagar. And the two shrines share something else in common. They’re neighbours, both situated on the banks of a pond known as “Shiv Nag”. Followers of both faiths — Hindus and Muslims – view the pond as sacred for its curative waters.

Though the village witnessed numerous violent incidents over two decades – caused mostly by stone-throwing protestors – Muslims protected the temple as much as they did the mosque. “We are able to worship in the temple after two decades only because of Muslims, who protected it from miscreants all these years,” Sunil Kumar, a teacher and member of the Pandit community, told Khabar. “Muslims never differentiated between the temple and the mosque.”

Read more: Communal Harmony