The lights had stopped working by the time Zahid walked through the house in Tral one July evening.
Water had stopped flowing, the security cameras that watched the gates had disappeared, and utility lines had been removed in broad daylight only a short walk from the local police station.
Standing alone inside the dark house, the caretaker picked up his phone and called its owner, Mohamed Yusuf Butt, more than 11,000 kilometres away in Toronto.
Within days, Butt, a 69-year-old Canadian citizen of Kashmiri origin, booked a flight home.
Canadian authorities had advised against travel to India. Butt came anyway.
He landed in Delhi on July 22, continued to Srinagar, and travelled straight to Pulwama district, determined to understand why a house he had built after more than three decades abroad had suddenly fallen silent.
The property in Tral Payeen represented far more than an investment. Butt spent about ₹1.5 crore building it, buying materials from local businesses and employing local workers. He holds a Canadian passport, an Overseas Citizen of India card and an Aadhaar card listing the Tral address. The house marked the place where he planned to spend longer visits and, one day, return for good.
Instead, it became the centre of an increasingly bitter dispute.
Much of that dispute appears in WhatsApp messages exchanged between Butt and Arshad Bhat, an electrician known to the family who worked on the property.
“You have trespassed into my property and removed stuff. This is huge violation,” Butt wrote. “I am afraid I will have to file an FIR.”
Arshad rejected the allegation and replied that Butt still owed him ₹26,000 from work completed the previous year. He accused Butt of failing to honour their agreement. Butt answered that payment had already been made to another contractor who completed the work.
The exchange soon turned hostile.
Messages referred to court proceedings, imprisonment, cancellation of licences and financial damages. One message told Butt to “wait and watch.”
While the dispute unfolded on phones, conditions at the property continued to worsen.
According to Butt and Zahid, electricity remained disconnected for days. Water stopped flowing, and internet service also failed. Zahid described repeated threats and eventually left the property after basic services disappeared.
Butt approached the local police station and also brought the matter to the attention of the district’s top police officer, seeking an FIR. Complaint records and correspondence reviewed by this newspaper show that the matter remained pending at the local level.
On July 27, Butt sent another message requesting that police either register the FIR or formally acknowledge receipt of his written complaint. He wrote that he hoped utility services would return before evening. They did not.
By then, the dispute had grown well beyond missing utility lines.
Butt assembled a detailed file containing boarding passes, passport records, Aadhaar documents, photographs, WhatsApp conversations and complaints written in English and Urdu. He personally submitted the material to Vidhi Kumar Birdi, the Inspector General of Police for Kashmir.
His letter described the removal of electricity and water connections, the disappearance of security equipment and the impact on the caretaker.
“I could have made a hue and cry with MOI and MOE,” Butt wrote. “But I thought of approaching you so that instant action is undertaken and a criminal case registered against the culprits including their accomplices.”
The complaint reached senior police officials within days.
On August 1, the Inspector General’s office issued a confidential communication directing the Deputy Inspector General of South Kashmir Range in Anantnag to examine Butt’s application and submit a report.
The forwarding note, accompanied by supporting documents, marked the first formal administrative response after weeks of complaints.
The order placed the dispute within the police system and opened the way for further action.
Butt also alleged that an official working in Pulwama shared family ties through marriage with the electrician named in his complaint. He described what he called a “nexus of evil” that sought to pressure an overseas property owner into paying money.
Authorities have not publicly responded to that allegation, and the claim remains unverified.
Arshad, meanwhile, has maintained that the dispute centres on unpaid dues rather than criminal conduct. His messages repeatedly insist that he completed work for which payment remained outstanding.
Those competing accounts now await examination through the official process initiated by senior police.
But the dispute has already reached beyond one house in Tral.
Thousands of Kashmiris living overseas continue to build homes in the valley, hoping to preserve family ties and prepare for longer stays after retirement. Many depend on caretakers, neighbours and local contractors while managing property from distant countries. Physical distance often turns routine disagreements into disputes that prove difficult to resolve without travelling home.
That irony sits heavily over Butt’s experience.
“The house rose with materials purchased in local markets. Local workers built its walls, installed its wiring and connected its water supply,” he said. “Those same systems later disappeared during the dispute.”
Despite Butt presenting documents to support his account and senior police officers taking note of the case, the central fact remains: a Canadian of Kashmiri origin flew 11,000 kilometres home after the house he had built for his return suddenly went dark, forcing him to cross an ocean to find out what had happened to the life he had left behind.
This article has been automatically published using a syndicated feed. The content is sourced externally and may not have been reviewed by The Freelancers Team.
