December 22
Ashraf Mir
Stone throwing clashes erupted in Balicharana area of Jammu City on Saturday morning as hundreds of residents clashes with the Jammu Kashmir Police in the area.
Sources told The Kashmiriyat that bulldozers arrived at the area around 4 am on Wednesday bulldozers arrived in the area to remove the structures around river Tavi on the directions of High Court of Jammu Kashmir.
In July this year, the Division Bench of State High Court Comprising Justice Tashi Rabstan and Justice Sanjay Kumar Gupta today directed the Divisional Commissioner Jammu to ensure removal of illegal constructions near bed of river Tawi and complete ban on extraction of minerals.
On Dec 04, the Division Bench of State High Court comprising Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Tashi Rabstan has warned to initiate contempt action against all the concerned authorities as the court appointed committee has pointed out that directions regarding removal of encroachments and illegal constructions in and around Tawi river from Nagrota to Mandal Phallian have remained un-complied with.
Nazakat Hussain Khatana, a local community leader while speaking to The Kashmiriyat said that there are thousands of structures around the Tavi river, however it is unfortunate and looks like they want to damage the shelter of Muslims initially.
“Why did the bulldozers arrive at this Muslim populated area first, when there are dozens of other areas which are even closer to the Tavi river bed?” he asked. He demanded that the order be revoked as the families have no where else to go.
The residents initially held a protest demonstration, however as soon as Police arrived into the Locality they tried to disperse the protesters, but the protesters regrouped in large numbers and hurled stones on them.
A Police official said that some Policemen received minor injuries in the stone throwing incident.