Ahmad, 28, goes around houses in Hisar, a city in northern India’s Haryana state, selling shawls and other handicraft items – like thousands of other itinerant traders from Indian-administered Kashmir, who crisscross the country on foot or bicycles.

But a spate of hate attacks faced by the shawl sellers in recent weeks has forced them to rethink and strategise what was once a common, winter-time sight across Indian cities: Kashmiris lugging large wraps holding shawls and other wares.

Ahmad now runs a WhatsApp group in which nearly two dozen members share information as they guide each other on areas to avoid.

Ahmad formed the WhatsApp group late last month after a Hindu shopkeeper in northern India’s Uttarakhand state hit Tabish Ahmad Ganie, an 18-year-old Kashmiri shawl seller, with an iron rod.

“This is a Hindu village. Kashmiri Muslims won’t work here at all,” the shopkeeper was heard shouting in a viral video of the attack, which left Ganie unconscious, while his elder brother Danish, who was also attacked, suffered minor injuries.