J&K politicians condemn demolishing of shops at migrant camp in Jammu

Srinagar, Nov 21: They cried, grabbed the legs of journalists present there, and expressed their desperateness. The aged men and women, over a couple of them, mourned over the loss of their livelihoods.

On Wednesday, officials from Jammu Development Authority (JDA) burst into the Muthi Camp in Jammu which houses hundreds of Kashmiri Pandits who fled to Jammu during ’90s political turmoil in the valley.

Sources confirmed that the grocery shops run by some Kashmiri Pandits were demolished unnoticed on Wednesday, leaving the migrants without any livelihood.

“Where will we go, we will put our children on fire, we have lost everything,” said a sobbing aged man as he was given water to make him relax.

“There is our Ashram on the back side of the camp, the people that went there and also the residents of the camp purchased from these shops, sustaining their livelihoods. But everything is gone now,” said a Kashmiri Pandit youth who wished not to be named.

“I think my heart will stop and I will collapse. What have they done to us,” asked another man who was seen pleading to the reporters present at the spot.

After videos of the victims’ misery were shared widely on the Internet, top Kashmiri politicians condemned the administration’s ‘heartbreaking move.’

Taking to her official X-handle, the former J-K chief minister and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said, this is another blow to a community that has endured unimaginable hardships for decades.

Quoting the video, Mufti said wrote, “Heartbreaking scenes emerge as Kashmiri Pandit shopkeepers stand helplessly by the rubble of their demolished shops, reportedly brought down by the JDA without prior notice.”

What began as targeted demolitions of assets of tribal community has now been extended to Kashmiri Pandits, further deepening their sense of alienation and loss, wrote Mufti.