Pulwama farmers defy BJP land grab move: ‘Touch our fields over our dead bodies’
Srinagar: Farmers staged a strong protest against the BJP regime’s fresh attempt to snatch their ancestral agricultural land in Padgampora-Dangarpora and Dangerpora areas of Pulwama district in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the protest was held in the Padgampora-Dangarpora and Dangerpora areas of Pulwama district, where farmers gathered on their ancestral fields to resist the land grab. Local farmers, joined by political leaders from across the board, staged a sit-in and also transplanted paddy in the fields as a symbol of defiance.
The protesting farmers said revenue officials have suddenly declared their fertile land — which their families have cultivated for generations — as government property and barred them from farming. The move has triggered widespread anger and fear of mass dispossession among farming families.
Peoples Democratic Party leader Waheed Ur Rehman Parra, who visited the site, strongly condemned the land grab. “These families have tilled this land for generations. Now they are being told it belongs to the government,” he said, warning that diverting fertile agricultural land for non-farming purposes would worsen unemployment and push youth towards drugs and depression. “We will not allow the government to touch our agricultural land,” Parra asserted.
National Conference leader Mukhtar Ahmad Bandh also joined the farmers in the fields and pledged full support, stating that the issue goes beyond party lines. “We have come here to stand with the farmers,” he said.
While addressing the gathering, Waheed Parra and Mukhtar Bandh strongly assured the farmers of their full support and vowed to resist any attempt to snatch agricultural land.
PDP leader Iltija Mufti visited the affected village and accused the administration of trying to seize around 2,000 kanals of fertile land.
In a sharp post on X, she said the Revenue Department is attempting to “snatch” ancestral paddy fields from poor families. She said that police were threatening protesters with detention under the draconian Public Safety Act (PSA) to suppress their resistance.
Iltija Mufti compared the situation with the recent Sidhra demolitions and warned that such anti-people policies would render many Kashmiris landless and homeless. “Kashmir’s land belongs to its people,” she declared.
The protest reflects growing resentment among the people against the BJP regime’s systematic campaign of land grabs, property seizures and demographic changes in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Farmers have vowed to resist any attempt to take away their ancestral lands.
