Srinagar, October 10, 2021 (PPI-OT):In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, in yet another eviction drive launched by Modi-led fascist Indian government against Kashmiris, the Gujjar Bakerwal community in the Rakh Brah area of Shangus Tehsil of Islamabad district have been ordered to vacate the land in the next 15 days for demolition of houses and other structured by the authorities.
A total of almost 700 families have been living in the area for the past around one century. The Modi regime in December 2020, announced plans to evict tens of thousands of people from what it called protected land.
In December, the IIOJK forest department published a list of about 63,000 people to be evicted from a total of 15,000 hectares of forest land.
One of the locals, Khalid Chowdhary while talking to media said a notice from the Revenue Department shocked them. He said that they have been living in the area for the last 75 years. “How can the authorities do this to us when they have themselves settled us down,” he asked.
As per an official document received by the tribals, the residents of the Tehsil Rakh Brah have been asked to vacate the land within a span of 15 days.
A tribal rights activist from Pahalgam, Chowdhary Irshad Khatana said that a notice has been issued by the Revenue Department asking the families to vacate their homes within 15 days.
“There is a state of chaos among people. The authorities have never asked us anything, why now?” he said, adding that the government has a dual face. “They are saying one thing but if you look at the ground, they do something else.”
He also took to twitter and said that on one hand, the government is allotting the forest land to tribals while on the other hand, it is demolishing the already allotted land.
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