Locals protest over Army encroachment in Sonamarg

GANDERBAL — Residents, traders and land owners here staged a protest against the fencing of their lands by the Indian Army.

Hundreds of local villagers, businessmen and other land owners staged a sit-in protest outside the Army camp in Sonamarg, a famous tourist resort here in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district. The protestors said that the Army encroached upon their over 100 kanals of land at Sonamarg.

“As people migrate to other villages due to severe cold and harsh winter here in Sonamarg, the Indian Army occupies the land and claims that they have taken it on lease for years,” a protester, Ishfaq Ahmad Kapra, said. “This year also the same was repeated as they have no rules and regulations,” he added.

“We are afraid that in the coming years, the Army might occupy our properties like houses and restaurants as the forces are expanding land occupation every year,” another protester, Aadil Ahmad, said. “Last year also, the Army fenced the 100 kanal truck-yard area,” he added.

Showing court papers and other land documents, owner of Maqbool Camping Agency Mohammad Maqbool Kapra said, “My signboards were damaged and the Army is trying to evict us from our own land and they want to make bunkers here.” He threatened, “I will either kill myself or my own family if they do anything to my land.”

A group of local villagers of Sonamarg, headed by local headmen, Panch and Sarpanch, said, “Our farm lands and pasture lands have been fenced by concrete wires for years and our local administration is either sleeping or getting their share.”

Pointing towards a Dhaba aside Army camp, the owner Qayoom said, “See how they fenced it with wire and few days back, I was the owner and was freely roaming around but today, I was shocked to see a board infront of my Dhaba with ‘Army Land’ written over it and a bunker on the gate of my Dhaba.”

The land owners threatened that if the Army continued ‘illegal possession of the land’ and refused to take down the fencing, they would launch massive agitation on the state level, causing hindrance to the Amarnath Yatra.

Villagers also blamed the Indian government for playing foul with Kashmiris. “It looks different when the GoI is trying to settle the refugees of Pakistan here in Kashmir, but what about we people who are part and parcel of the state promulgated as the ‘Crown of India’,” a villager of Sonamarg said.

Local bodies and other trade unions have appealed Governor of the State, NN Vohra, to interfere and help them.

Tehsildar Gund, Dr Shoaib Wani and a police team from Police Station Sonamarg were also present there when the protest was going on.

Sources from the Revenue department confirmed the encroachment and pointed out some Khasra numbers, including 484, 485, 481, 341, 317, 318, 321, 322, 324, 349, 477, 475 and confirmed over 100 kanals of land being occupied illegally.

When contacted, SDM Kangan, Ghulam Ahmad Mir, said that he visited the place with the Revenue team and told the Army officers to remove the fencing around the land. “Law will take its own course and nobody will be allowed to violate the norms,” he said.

Meanwhile, despite several attempts, no official from the Sonamarg Development Authority or the Indian Army was available for comments.