Kashmiri woollens trader Feroz Jan, who has been staying with his family at Dhatkidih B-Block these past six years, is a scared and worried man after Article 370 was revoked on August 5.

Jan, who went to Srinagar in summer to book woollen garments and shawls for sale this winter, told this reporter that he was advised by his friends in Srinagar to hurry back to Jamshedpur to his wife and six-year-old daughter as soon as Article 370 was lifted. “My friends said the situation will be volatile there, so I rushed back, did not waste a day, but my consignment of woollens hasn’t reached and I can’t call up anyone there. Cellphone communication is blocked,” he told this reporter.

Unlike Jan, most men who sell Kashmir’s fabled embroidered shawls are migrants to cities like Jamshedpur. This year, they’re missing in action this year owing to the clampdown in the troubled Valley after August 5.

Informal sources say over 1,000 Kashmiri woollen garment and shawl traders come to the steel city around September every year with shawls, sweaters, phirans, stoles, coats and more. They are usually here for about six months from August-end and stay at rented houses in Dhatkidih in Bistupur, Aambagan in Sakchi and Golmuri Masjid line. While most men come alone and stay in groups, some come with their families.

Winter a couple of months away, residents of the steel city are missing their favourite Kashmiri shawl walas who make an appearance this time of the year.

A 48-year-old homemaker in Bistupur said she had last year asked her regular Kashmiri trader to bring her a shawl as a present to her mother.

“He has been coming to our locality with embroidered woollen garments for the last many years,” Katina Devi said. “This year he has not. I am afraid the trader is in some trouble due to the ongoing situation,” she said. “But I can’t think of any other shawl for my mother, so I’ll wait,” she said.

Another woman, Suman Gupta of Kagalnagar in Sonari is also waiting for her regular Kashmiri trader. “I’d ordered a fur coat and some stoles. But the man has not turned up yet though half of September is gone.”

But there is hope, said Rashid Ahmed, one of the rare Kashmiri traders who managed to reach Jamshedpur from Srinagar on September 1. “The situation is limping back to normalcy, but very slowly,” he said, but admitted this winter would be harsh for business.

It will also be a harsh winter for house-owners, who make extra bucks from letting out space to Kashmiri traders for six months, rued Ashfaque Khan, a house-owner of Dhatkidih.