A picture has gone viral on the social media in Kashmir region in which men and women together are offering funeral prayers one of the five persons killed by the Army, allegedly a militant, in south Kashmir area of Shopian.

“One of the most defining pictures from the Kashmir Valley. Grief is gender neutral. And so is the resilience and resistance. A picture worth a thousand words”, wrote political commentator, Gowhar Geelani, on Twitter.

“It is one of the most powerful and heart-wrenching pics i have seen”, wrote a senior journalist on social networking site Facebook. Some have written that they have witnessed such scenes many times. “Down south, this is no longer blasphemous; have witnessed scenes like these personally many times.”

The situation across the Valley is tense after the Army on Sunday killed two militants and four civilians. The locals allege that the civilians were killed in the cold blood after a gunfight.

On Sunday night, the Army said two cars refused to stop at a checkpoint outside a Shopian military base and militants inside the car fired at the soldiers. The army spokesman Col. Rajesh Kalia said a militant was killed when soldiers fired back and later three bodies were found inside a car. A fourth civilian's body was recovered from a nearby car. The body of another militant was found a few kilometers away. The Army said he was injured in the shooting and succumbed later.

Kalia called the slain civilians "over-ground workers," a term that the Army use for people who give support to the militants. Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, however, termed them "civilians." In her tweet, Mehbooba said she was "deeply distressed by more deaths of civilians caught in the crossfire in Shopian."

A photojournalist, Sheikh Mashooq who took the picture said that it was the funeral prayer of a militant Ashiq Hussain Bhat, where he found the women offering funeral prayer alongside men. He said he found it normal. “I didn’t find anything unique. It was one among many pictures of the day. I didn’t know it will become viral,” Sheikh told Outlook. He works with local English Daily Rising Kashmir. He said he also works with Benar News based in Washington.

According to the Army, Bhat was injured during Sunday’s shootout and later his body was found in the apple orchard on Monday.

Last year on April 9 in Budgam, Major Leetul Gogoi tied a voter, Farooq Ahmad Dar, with his vehicle. The Army described him as a stone thrower, the charges denied the latter. Dar’s picture, according to former Northern Commander of Indian Army, Lt General H. S. Panag, became a defining image of the 27-year Kashmir insurgency. “Image of a ‘stone pelter’ tied in front of a jeep as a ‘human shield,’ will 4 ever haunt the Indian Army & the nation,” Panag, wrote on Twitter.

In February, Amnesty in its report said, in April, eight people were killed by security forces, some of them by the use of excessive force, following protests during a by-election for a parliamentary seat.

“One voter, Farooq Ahmad Dar, was beaten by army personnel, strapped to the front of an army jeep and driven around for over five hours, seemingly as a warning to protesters. In May, the officer suspected of being responsible received an army commendation for his work in counter-insurgency operations. In July, the J&K State Human Rights Commission directed the state government to pay Farooq Dar Rs 1 lakh  (around USD1,500) as compensation. In November, the state government refused to pay”, the report had said.