Popular playback singer Sonu Nigam’s recent performance at Kashmir’s Sher-i-Kashmir International Convocation Complex (SKICC) with the picturesque Dal and the majestic Zabarwan Mountains as the backdrop was the first such event since the Pahalgam attack in the Valley. A tribute to Mohommad Rafi as well as Kashmir, it saw Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah stay away from the concert amid calls for boycott while Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha supported it, adding that it would “boost tourism” in the Valley. Nigam’s video of stopping his concert for the evening azaan to take place was appreciated and went viral while a social media debate had ensued about Nigam’s 2017 comments about loudspeakers used by mosques, temples and gurudwaras as “forced religiosity”.

This month, Nigam embarked up

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