Srinagar, Aug. 8 -- 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, determin...