Amnesty International India has responded to the ongoing demolition of homes and businesses in parts of Kashmir that started on February 5 demanding it is stopped immediately.
The local administration has been carrying out demolition drives in areas of the Srinagar, Anantnag, and Baramulla districts. Many locals have lost their homes and businesses that took many years to set up in a second. Moreover, they allege that there was no official eviction notice from the local administration.
Many locals have forwarded and presented official documents that prove ownership of their properties. However, they were not given a chance to speak as authorities started to bulldoze their homes.
Here are some videos where locals request the administration to stop the demolition.
Akar Patel, the chair of the board of Amnesty International India addressed the growing concern in a statement stating, “The ongoing demolitions appear to be an extension of the brutal human rights violations the region of Jammu and Kashmir, the only Muslim majority region of India, has historically witnessed. These demolitions could amount to forced evictions which constitute a gross violation of human rights.”
Calling the demolition drive as human rights violation, Patel said that no one should be left homeless and vulnerable.
“The Indian authorities must immediately halt the demolition drive and ensure that safeguards against forced evictions as outlined in international human rights standards are put in place before any evictions are carried out. They must offer adequate compensation to all those affected without discrimination, ensure that victims of forced evictions have access to an effective remedy, and those responsible are held to account,” Patel said.
Earlier in the day, People’s Democratic Party president and former J&K chief minister Mahmooba Mufti was detained by the Delhi police on Wednesday for protesting against the demolition drive. Several other PDP members were also detained.
“There is gunda raj in JK. It is being destroyed like Afghanistan,” Mufti was heard saying as she was being detained.
