Ishfaq Ahmed Sheikh (28), saw several reports of demolition drives across Jammu Kashmir, which frightened his family, who dwell in Tangmarg’s Kunzer area, just 20 kilometers from Kashmir’s feted tourism destination, Gulmarg. “I was afraid that the bulldozers would come here at any moment and wreak havoc here. Today is just the beginning of that,” the 28-year-old said, sipping a cup of tea, wearing a worrisome expression on his face.
Ishfaq is not the only one who is concerned about this demolition in the Kunzer area. Several others have received eviction notices from the Revenue Department of Jammu and Kashmir, declaring that their properties are built on ‘state land’ and must be vacated within four days. “If you do not evict the building within four days, action will be taken against you, and you will be obligated to pay the cost of demolition,” states the notice, a copy of which is available with The Kashmiriyat.
Official figures reveal that a total of 73,501 kanal (9187.62404 acre) of ‘state land’ in the Baramulla district have been cleared of “encroachments” during the massive anti-encroachment drive. The drive was launched in January in pursuance of Jammu Kashmir admin’s order of January 09, to remove all “encroachments” from state land by January 31, 2023. The order applies to both the land falling under the Roshni Act and common grazing land (Kahcharai).
The Roshni Act, passed by the Jammu Kashmir government in the year 2001, aimed at offering a way to state land users the ownership rights of that patch of land after they paid a fee set by the government. The act, however, was repealed by the then governor of Jammu Kashmir, Satya Pal Malik, in December 2018. He claimed that the act had been misused, by the ruling government at the time.
In October 2020, a division bench of High Court Jammu Kashmir declared the Roshni Act as “completely unconstitutional.” A month later the Jammu Kashmir admin issued an order less than a month later declaring all actions taken under the law as ‘null and void.’ The Revenue Department was ordered to evict ‘encroachers’ from such land and retrieve it within six months.
Kahcaharie is a plot of land that has historically been used by many resident families in villages to graze their livestock, however, the admin says that the villagers have occupied the lands and several ‘influential’ people have grabbed the Kahcharie land in parts of Kashmir.
The Jammu Kashmir administration, running the affairs of the region that was demoted to a Union Territory on August 05, 2019 after the BJP-led government at the Centre unliterally abrogated the region’s partial autonomy, has assured that common persons will not be targetted during the eviction drive. The administration also said that the drive was launched to retrieve land from the ‘powerful land grabbers.’
According to officials in Jammu Kashmir, over 2.15 Lakh Kanal of state land has been retrieved from ‘encroachers’ in Jammu Kashmir (as of 05 February, 2023). The officials say that the eviction drives will continue to reclaim the remaining 2.74 lakh kanal of ‘encroached’ state land across the valley, adding that the land will be used for various public purposes varying from playgrounds, hospitals among others.
The demolition drives, wherever the officials deem necessary, are monitored by a Revenue Official who takes care of the Standard Operating Procedures being followed. The Revenue Department, in charge of the ongoing eviction drive in Jammu Kashmir, has faced several protests in the valley and in the Jammu region, as well over the drives. In fact, the last week angry residents of Chakla in Baramulla attacked a Revenue Official, injuring him.
Though the administration has reiterated that the common persons would not be targetted, the commoners on the ground are facing the heat of the demolitions and are protesting owing to the prevelant fear and uncertainty. The panic is also triggered by the scale of the drive launched by the administration. The admin has said that Jammu Kashmir has illegal encroachment on 22 lakh kanals (2.75 lakh acres) of land.
In Shopian, at least two hundred shopkeepers shut their shops to demand an immediate rollback of the order calling for the removal of ‘encroachers’ over the state land. This protest and shutdown in Nagbal, Shopian on February 03, came a day after the main market in Kellar, Shopian observed a shutdown asking the administration to withdraw the order calling for the eviction of ‘encroachments’ over state land.
On the same day, a team led by Revenue Officials sealed thirty-nine shops in the Kanelwan area of Bijbehara, Anantnag. The shops were constructed by the local Auqaf Committee of Kanelwan and the rent of the shops was used for the Mosque along with other relief work for the local population.
“Our future looks bleak right now. We will be left with nothing to feed to our families, if these shops are snatched away from us,” said Ishaq.
The Kunzer story
Amid protests and widespread criticism, a clerk from the Tangmarg Revenue Office knocked on the gates of a number of homes in Kunzer town on Saturday afternoon and left notices for the inmates giving them four days to remove “encroachments” from state land. The one worded “encroachment” on the notice happen to be the shops of local residents in Kunzer’s main town, a source of income to over two hundred families.
Gul Mohammed Sheikh (name changed) is one of the sixty (atleast) shop owners who have been served the eviction notices here. He paid a sum of over 6000 in order to get permission for construction to the concerned department, as per his son and around 20,000 to other departments during the process of the construction of the shopping complex that has over 20 shops. He purchased the patch of land using his lifelong earning at the main town Kunzer and was also promised ‘revenue registration’ after the transactions, but he never received the papers.
His son, who is 28-years-old, said that over 70 shops, that are the source of livelihood to over two hundred (200) families are at the verge of being locked down by the officials after the eviction notice they received on Saturday afternoon.
Speaking to The Kashmiriyat, Ishfaq expressed anguish and fear stating that the rent of the twenty shops is so meagre that it does not run their house even for a month. “I had to open a confectionary shop of my own to be able to support my family of four. Now, I do not know which doors to knock and beg at. We are devastated,” he lamented.
Since 2006, when the construction of the shopping complex was finished, hundreds of local residents have become dependent on it for their livelihood and it remained home to more than seventy shops, Ishfaq claimed, adding, “Such scale of demolition is going to have devastating effects on our livelihoods.Where will we find work? Kashmir is struggling with unemployment, already. They must give poison to our families first. Economically, we are crushed. Is that what they want to do?” he asked.
Criticism over the drive
People from nearby areas including Magam, Tangmarg, Gulmarg and several other nearby areas shop at Kunzer market, which is the entry point to Gulmarg and has over fifteen hundred shops. The recent order that the local shopkeepers received has caused panic among all types of businesses that operate in this area.
The eviction drive has been critisized for the lack of transparency, with many politicians even questioning its very intent. Former Legislator and local politician, Mohammed Amin Bhat, claimed that the administration was lying about the motive behind the ongoing eviction drives on state land. “Why do they (officials) not use the unoccupied state land for public works before they want to deprive people of the patches of state land they are using for residential, earing purposes?” Mohammed Amin Bhat asked.
“They are lying that they will construct stadiums and hospitals. If they really want to use the state land for public works, over 70 per cent of the state land is unoccupied or maybe even more. Less than 20 per cent of the state land is being used by locals. Why do they not start by using the 70 per cent unoccupied state land for public purposes?” the former legislator iterated.
At several places, those whose property, boundary walls and alleged illegal structures were demolished, and then signs stating that the said property was “state/Kahcharie land” were erected, said they did not get the chance to prove that the land belonged to them. On January 31, senior Kashmiri politician and leader of Awami National Conference, Muzaffar Shah, stood to bulldozers at Srinagar’s M.A road during a demolition drive and called upon the administration to remove the Governor’s house in Kashmir, which he said was built on state land.
Displaying the ownership papers of the land to the media and the officials, Muzaffar Shah claimed that the Hotel Nedous was built in the year 1835 and that the land was in possession of the third generation of the builders of the Neoudous Hotel. The officials, however, went ahead and removed the ‘encroachments’ near the Nedous Hotel in Srinagar. Elsewhere too, the drive has faced anger from locals.
Mehbooba Mufti, the former CM of the erstwhile state of Jammu Kashmir, made a comparison of the drives to Palestine, and said, “Palestine was still better as Kashmiris were not even allowed to talk.”
She said that the move was aimed at creating massive Israel-pattern demographic changes in Kashmir.
People’s Conference leader, Sajad Lone, said that the ‘Delhi-backed’ administration was “inventing” homelessness in Kashmir through the eviction drive. The only party supporting the drive is the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) which has in fact intervened in several protests and promised the locals that they (locals) would not be harassed and that the drive was meant to retrieve land from the influential people, alone. As the issue remains heated up across the region, many, like Ishfaq, uncertain of their future curiously awaiting the latest news in the matter.
“Visuals of wailing women, protesting residents, bulldozers demolishing structures are doing rounds on the social media, while the majority of the mainstream media has refrained from covering the issue, other than carrying official communiques. Behind the selected press releases of officials reclaiming and retrieving land from the ‘powerful’ and ‘influential,’ the truth is out in open,” said Angad Singh Khalsa, a Sikh activist from Srinagar.
“We feared that the bulldozers will come to our doors, but an official event (Khelo India) saved us for a while. Now that the games are over, the notices have reached us. Our families will starve. What will be left, if our shops are snatched from us?” said Ishfaq, in the meanwhile.
The names of the people who spoke to us have been changed on request.