
Kashmir News Weekly Roundup: 1/15-1/22
Exclusive:
India unveils plans to occupy land by expelling natives and bringing in outside settlers
In the past week, the imposed Indian administration in occupied Kashmir has taken off its disguise and revealed its intention to seize territory and displace as many local Muslims as possible. The authorities have created lists of properties totaling at least 94,000 acres in what they call “encroachment” of government land.
There are 5,000 pages worth of lists of properties, including houses, mosques, schools, and even orphanages, that have been created for the districts of Srinagar, Budgam, Anantnag, and Pulwama alone. Representatives of the Indian occupation aided by armed forces have started evicting people in several locations by demolishing homes and destroying farmland.
Exclusive:
Chaos in Kashmir ahead of India’s Republic day
Ahead of India’s Republic Day, which also coincides with Rahul Gandhi’s “Bharat Jodo Yatra” in occupied Kashmir, the Indian forces went berserk and ransacked homes of local Kashmiri Muslims—-humiliating men, women, and children.
Locals in a few uptown Srinagar neighborhoods were forced to spend the entire night outside their homes in bitter cold subzero weather. Engineer Aftaab remarked, “The military kept us outside our homes for about an hour without any justification. My wife and two small children weren’t allowed to stay inside our house during the night attack.” All main routes in occupied kashmir have seen a traffic disruption, and street harassment in the name of ‘security’ continues. We walked 9 kilometers on foot because they won’t let traffic pass,” Rashida Bhat who was accompanying her husband, a regular dialysis patient.”
The main aim of celebrating India’s republic day in occupied Kashmir in the brutal armed grip of an army occupation is to legitimize India’s illegal occupation and create fake optics and media reports. Through their biased media campaign, they continue to spread lies while Kashmiris stay under a strict military curfew.
News Updates:
‘Vacate Land’: India issues order to displace Kashmiri Muslims
With the amended land laws rules under the settler-colonial project India has ordered to revocate the rights of the local Kashmiris to their land. By the end of January, all deputy commissioners were instructed to ensure the complete removal of settlements from lands owned by the indigenous people.
Following the circular issued by the government, the administration on Wednesday sent out individual notices to every J&K resident demanding that they leave the “state land” on their own; if they fail to do so, extreme action will be taken against the “illegal encroachers.” The letters instructed the individuals who had allegedly encroached on state property to take immediate action to remove the encroachments within two days.
“If any person fails to remove the encroachment, the department will swing into action, and people have to pay the charges of the same,” the notices issued by the Executive Magistrate in north Kashmir’s Baramulla and Boniyar areas read. Similar warnings have been published in other regions across J&K.
Hurriyat calls the ‘vacate state land’ order, an attempt to accelerate the settlement of outsiders
The administration’s latest attempt to nullify Jammu and Kashmir’s land laws and remove local communities’ rights to cultivate state, community, and evacuee land has outraged all parties at the Hurriyat Conference. This move makes it easier for the government to create private land banks and give those banks to outsiders so they can establish industries in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. According to a Hurriyat spokesman, this action will further impoverish and disempower citizens in Jammu and Kashmir, especially those in the poorest sectors.
“The people are already at the receiving end since the revocation of 35A when the Government of India notified that any Indian citizen can purchase non-agricultural land in the new Union Territory and subsequently further notified a new set of rules that allowed the change of title of agricultural land to non-agricultural on fulfilling conditions. After the Roshni land scam case, marginal farmers who got state land regularized under the Jammu & Kashmir State land Act became the targets of the state, retrieving land from them,” the spokesman said.
The statement added that all these are attempts to accelerate and facilitate the settlement of outsiders in Jammu Kashmir to bring about demographic change in the composition of the state while keeping the locals entangled in fighting for basic sustenance.
More settler colonies proposed in Jammu region
India is moving faster than ever to establish new settler colonies in various parts of Jammu as a part of its ambition to crush the resistance in Jammu and Kashmir. India’s political goals include changing the area’s demographics and electoral politics by constructing settlements on the advice and pattern of inhumane Israeli settlements in Palestine.
On Monday, the Indian Army proposed building a housing complex in Jammu for retired soldiers and the relatives of dead Indian army personnel in violence.
“To meet the long-standing request of our veterans, the Board of Governors of the Army Welfare Housing Organization (AWHO), Jammu, has approved a housing project,” General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Northern Command, Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi remarked when speaking to the public at Rajouri. “You can apply for this project while applying for your domicile certificate (to attain citizenship of Jammu and Kashmir) from January 15 to April 30,” he said.
India planned Pulwama and Uri attacks, says Indian politician
The Additional General Secretary of the unionist political group J&K National Conference, Mustafa Kamal, said that the Government of India was behind the Pulwama and Uri attacks, exposing its decades-long “false and dirty operations” in Kashmir.
In an interview on Monday, Kamal said, “it is almost clear that the Govt of India planned it. We didn’t see their photos or bodies. Until it’s clear who the killer is, all fingers point toward agencies of the Govt of India….” He also claimed that all those who were killed in Pulwama attack belonged to scheduled castes.
JK admin orders employees to attend India’s Republic Day parade or face action
The Indian government has directed Kashmiri people with government jobs to attend India’s Republic Day celebration on January 26th. People worry that these efforts are being made to modify the public perception of the occupation and oppression of the Kashmiri people. Through this latest effort, the government is able to project a false perception of normalcy while fostering a false sense of belonging to India.
BJP appointed WAQF board chairman, constitutes committees to take over shrines/masjids across occupied Kashmir
Darakhshan Andrabi of the far-right Hindutva BJP became the chairperson of the J&K Wakf Board for the first time since March 2022. She established district-level committees on Tuesday and asked them to compile a list of all shrines, including the Jamia Masjids, Khanqahs, and related properties, to control all their assets and resources.
For locals, the move means nothing but radical right wing Hindus of India hijacking the Islamic religious institutions in Kashmir.