Nearly two dozen workers of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) were detained on Saturday after party’s youth wing tried to take out a protest march against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and alleged attempts by the J&K administration to settle outsiders in the Muslim majority region.
The workers along with leaders like Waffa, Rajinder Manhas, Rajat Gupta and E Peter were detained and taken to district police lines from where they were released after two hours.
Led by general secretary Amrik Singh Reen and provincial president Haji Parvez Waffa, dozens of PDP leaders and workers with placards in their hands came out of the PDP headquarters at Gandhi Nagar and started marching on Banihal Cart road.
However, a strong posse of police force foiled their attempt and detained nearly two dozen of them.
Lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha said on July 3 that his administration has started providing plots measuring 150 square yards to landless families for the construction of their houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).
Reen alleged that it is a nefarious design of the UT administration along with BJP to settle outsiders in different parts of Jammu and Kashmir and specifically at Jammu.
{{/usCountry}}Reen alleged that it is a nefarious design of the UT administration along with BJP to settle outsiders in different parts of Jammu and Kashmir and specifically at Jammu.
{{/usCountry}}“We will strongly oppose this move of the government because this action of the administration will snatch the livelihood of the people of Jammu and Kashmir”, he said and sought the support of Jammu people to foil such “nefarious designs” of the government.
“This move is a cultural onslaught to finish Dogra identity because people of Jammu region will lose their identity and culture, if the non-state subjects are allotted land and settled in Jammu”, Reen said.
Waffa condemned the police action and said his party would not stay silent when people from outside are being settled in Jammu and Kashmir.
“The land belongs to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Let them provide land to migrant Kashmiri Pandits, nobody will have any objection,” he said.
“We won’t allow BJP-controlled administration to settle outsiders in J&K and snatch the livelihood of locals,” he added.
Waffa said the PDP had also planned the protest against the installation of smart electricity meters by replacing digital meters and continuous attacks on minority community members in the Valley.
Three labourers from Bihar were shot at and injured by terrorists in Shopian district on Thursday.
“The selective and targeted attacks have been going on for the last several years despite the BJP’s tall claims of normalcy. What type of normalcy is this?” Waffa asked.