Share property details of Kashmiri migrants, security council tells J&K

Sumit Hakhoo 
Tribune News Service
Jammu, January 31

The National Security Council Secretariat, which advises the Prime Minister’s Office on security and strategic issues, has asked Jammu and Kashmir to submit “area-wise details of distress sale of immovable properties belonging to Kashmiri migrants” forced to leave the Valley following the onset of militancy in the 1990s.

In a communication to the Divisional Commissioner’s Office (Kashmir), the secretariat sought data about immovable properties left behind by lakhs of Hindu, Sikh and Muslim families, most of them living in camps in Jammu and other parts of the country as migrants. These include 3.5 lakh minority Kashmiri Pandits.

“The secretariat is preparing an assessment of migrants (Pandits, Sikhs and others) who were displaced due to militancy in J&K. Share area-wise details of distress sales and alienation of immovable properties of Kashmiri migrants in the Valley since the 1990s. Provide area-wise details of land holding and immovable property and property under the custody of the government,” says the order. 

Divisional Commissioner (Kashmir) Baseer Khan said, “We have passed directions to respective districts to furnish details.” He, however, refused to share further information. 

The order assumes significance as after the exodus of 3.5 lakh Pandits, the state Assembly had passed the Jammu and Kashmir Migrant Immovable Property (Preservation, Protection and Restraint on Distress Sales) Act, 1997, placing respective district administrations as custodians of the properties and religious structures left behind by the minorities. For any change or sale of property, a written consent of migrants was needed. 

But for years, representative organisations of the Pandits have alleged that land mafia, allegedly in connivance with “corrupt” revenue officials, has been encroaching upon their properties.