Sangh Parivar

They support their demand for the govt to return land to the Amarnath shrine board

SRINAGAR: A new political and religious alignment is taking shape in Jammu after influential Muslims of Reasi joined hands with Hindus to protest against the Amarnath land revocation order by Ghulam Nabi Azad-led government.

For the last six days, Jammu has been on the boil against the land revocation by the Azad cabinet prompting the police to clamp down curfew in different parts of the region. Hundreds of people have been injured and many arrested for defying the curfew and prohibitory orders.

However, the agitators mostly comprising Hindus have now got a support from an unexpected quarter after Muslims openly came forward to demand the land be given back to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB).

“We are living in a secular and democratic setup where every religion is equal. But the PDP and the Hurriyat Conference are playing vote bank politics and therefore opposing handing over land to SASB. It is also reality that Islamic university has been given hundreds of kanals of land and why deprive the SASB, “ asks Tariq Bhat, former president of Waqf Board Reasi.

The row began after the government “diverted” 800 Kanals (39.88 hectares) of forest land to the shrine board, leading to protests by separatists and mainstream parties. The PDP has received some flak as its leader and former Forest Minister Qazi Afzal had approved the deal.

Under pressure from the Hurriyat Conference for facilitating the purported transfer of the forest land, former deputy chief minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig said the land has only been “diverted temporarily” for the two-month Yatra period and the “structures raised over it will be demolished after the pilgrimage is over”.