By Jehangir Ali
Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir administration is taking over land nearly equalling the size of Hong Kong under the garb of removing illegal encroachments since last January, after the erstwhile state’s special status was revoked in 2019, a report by a global rights advocacy group has said.
In a 56-page report published on its website on Wednesday (October 2), International Federation for Human Rights (Fédération internationale pour les droits humains or FIDH), a French group which works in 116 countries across the globe, has said that the “drastic” legal and policy changes post 2019 have had a “disastrous impact on the human rights of Kashmiris, particularly with regard to land and related human rights issues.”
“The changes in Kashmir’s land laws have enabled the Indian authorities to forcibly evict and dispossess thousands of Kashmiris from their homes, without due process, and in violation of India’s international human rights obligations,” the report has said, calling for a “full, independent and transparent” investigation into the allegations of unlawful land seizures and compensation for those whose rights were violated in Jammu and Kashmir.
New laws and rules promulgated by the Centre after 2019 have allowed any Indian citizen to become permanent resident of Jammu and Kashmir which grants them the right to purchase land in the region, apply for jobs, vote in elections and others.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
