In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the New Delhi-Controlled Jammu and Kashmir Waqf Board has constituted district level committees to take over control of all the notified shrines and Masjids in the territory.
An order issued by Executive Magistrate Tehsildar (J&K Waqf Board), Ishtiyaq Mohi-ud-din, the committees have been asked to prepare a list of all shrines, Jamia Masjids, Khankahs and associated properties which are Waqf notified properties in the respective district.
The committees have also been asked to submit reports in this regard within a period of 21 days.
Incarcerated senior leader of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, has condemned in strong terms the confiscation of land and properties of Muslims by the authorities in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
Shabbir Ahmed Shah in his message from New Delhi’s infamous Tihar Jail said that forced evictions and illegal seizure of land and properties of Kashmiri Muslims were part of the BJP government’s policy to reduce them to second class citizens. He said the BJP has a notorious track record of persecuting Muslims on one pretext or the other.
The APHC leader said that after failing to suppress the Kashmiri Muslims despite exhausting all its resources, the communal regime has now crafted a new scheme to terrorize poor farmers in the territory. He deplored that the poor farmers were being evicted from their marginal lands in the name of anti-encroachment drive while the state land was being handed over to the Indian Hindus under the guise of so-called development and foreign investment.
Shabbir Shah said eviction of Kashmiris from their lands is part of the Modi government’s campaign to bring about the demographic change in IIOJK by settling outsiders across Jammu region and in different parts of the Kashmir Valley. He said it is high time that the political leadership, civil society, rights groups and all segments of the society should raise their voice against such nefarious moves.
The APHC leader pointed out that Kashmiris were facing a serious existential threat under the India’s fascist gov-ernment that seeks to control by hook or by crook the people of IIOJK, their land and properties. He said that the world community should play its due role in resolving the lingering Kashmir dispute that happens to be main source of tension in the region.—KMS
