Delhi-backed protest in Jammu fuels fears of campaign to oust Kashmiri Muslims
Jammu: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, political analysts and civil society members have said that the protest held in Jammu against alleged land encroachments was orchestrated at the behest of New Delhi as part of a wider campaign to target and eventually displace Kashmiri Muslims from the region.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the protest led by BJP MLA Vikram Randhawa was staged in Jammu against alleged encroachment of forest and state lands in areas surrounding the winter capital.
The demonstrators demanded an “Encroachment-free Jammu” campaign and openly raised slogans against so-called “outsider land-grabbers” instead of real outsiders from India.
During the protest, the BJP legislator accused people from Kashmir of occupying land in Jammu and alleged that the demographic character of the region was being altered. He also demanded strict eviction drives and administrative action against them.
Political observers said the statements made during the protest clearly expose the communal mindset behind the campaign and reflect a calculated attempt by the BJP and RSS-backed establishment to create hostility against Kashmiri Muslims. They said New Delhi is using BJP leaders and state machinery to build a narrative portraying Kashmiri Muslims as illegal settlers in Jammu in order to justify future expulsions and land confiscations.
The observers maintained that such protests are not isolated incidents but part of a larger settler-colonial project launched after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019. They said the Modi regime has already introduced new domicile and land laws to facilitate demographic changes in the occupied territory, while demolition drives, property attachments and anti-encroachment operations are increasingly being used to economically and politically weaken Kashmiri Muslims.
Civil society activists warned that the campaign resembles tactics used in other occupied regions where indigenous populations are gradually marginalized through legal, political and administrative measures. They said portraying Kashmiri Muslims as encroachers in Jammu is aimed at stripping them of their historical rights and creating fear and division between communities.
The activists urged the United Nations and international human rights organizations to take serious notice of what they termed an organized attempt by the Modi regime to alter the demographic structure of Jammu and Kashmir and displace Kashmiri Muslims under different pretexts.
