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Srinagar, May 20: A demolition drive in Jammu’s Raika Bandi area has triggered widespread outrage, with tribal families protesting the loss of their homes and political as well as religious leaders accusing the government of violating the Forest Rights Act, 2006. Jammu and Kashmir administration has meanwhile set up a two-member fact-finding committee to probe alleged violations linked to the demolitions.

People’s Conference president Sajad Gani Lone dismissed the enquiry as “a mere eyewash,” likening it to magisterial probes ordered after civilian killings to pacify public anger. He argued that verifying whether claims under the Act were pending could be done in minutes, not days, and stressed that demolitions of tribal or traditional forest dwellers’ homes without due process directly breach FRA provisions.

Lone said eviction cannot take place until recognition and verification procedures are complete, adding that the government was simply passing the buck.

On Tuesday, police and forest officials demolished nearly 20–30 structures in the Raika Bandi forest belt of Jammu’s lower Shivalik range, claiming recovery of about 60 kanals of land. However, affected families staged protests, alleging the action was carried out without prior notice and branding it “unjustified.”

Meanwhile, Awami Ittehad Party spokesperson, Inam Un Nabi, said that the drive was “inhumane, anti-poor and a direct assault on tribal and economically weaker families”. He questioned why bulldozers were reaching only powerless groups when nearly 14 lakh kanals of state land in Jammu division were allegedly under illegal occupation by influential encroachers.

Kashmir’s chief cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq also voiced concern, calling the displacement of Gujjar and Bakerwal families “selective targeting of communities under the garb of law enforcement.” He warned that such measures render vulnerable groups homeless and deepen social divides.