Srinagar, Nov. 30 -- I first heard about that group through the community contacts.

An outreach worker mentioned them one afternoon. A neighbour hinted that a few boys had begun slipping out after dark. A shopkeeper said he was worried about someone he once knew as a cheerful child.

All of it added up to the same picture, so I followed the trail.

It led me to Shahnawaz. We met outside a chemist near Lal Chowk around nine at night, a time when Kashmir grows dark and deserted.

He asked the shopkeeper for a small bottle of distilled water. The man pushed it across the counter in a careful way, as if he already understood the purpose of the visit.

Later, Shahnawaz told me that he and three friends would gather in a rented room. They t...