Twice Displaced in 30 Years: Elderly Kashmiri Migrant Couple Left Homeless After Jammu Demolition Drive
For 80-year-old Abdul Razak and his 75-year-old wife Khatoon Bi, losing their home has become a painful reality for the second time in three decades.
Earlier this week, the couple’s modest house in Jammu’s Sidhra area was among nearly two dozen structures demolished by the Jammu and Kashmir Police and Forest Department, which claimed the homes had been built on forest land.
A day after the demolition, the elderly couple sat quietly beneath a large tree, trying to escape the blistering summer heat.
With temperatures in Jammu touching 43 degrees Celsius — almost four degrees above normal — the shade of the tree had become their only refuge.
As he looked at the rubble of what was once his home, Razak recalled another traumatic chapter from the late 1990s, when militancy forced the family to flee their native village in South Kashmir’s Kokernag.
“It was the peak of militancy in our area,” Razak said softly, while Khatoon Bi listened beside him. He remembered how an Army unit had arrived in their village and temporarily stayed in a local school building.
The following morning, officers asked villagers to help them with information about militants operating nearby.
Razak said he and a few others cooperated with the security forces, and the information they shared reportedly helped eliminate several militants.
During the Army’s stay, he also worked alongside the forces and helped construct bunkers for them.
But when the Army unit eventually left after the situation improved, militants returned to the village.
According to Razak, the burned homes were even set on fire to the school where the soldiers had stayed. Such an inhuman act, which also involves one’s dedication towards the nation, has happened even when the 80-year-old man has helped the army against the militants.
Those involved in the demolition of his house seem to be devoid of all humanity and their responsibility towards the elderly in the society, remarked a resident.
Soon after, militants allegedly pressured villagers to reveal the names of those who had supported the security forces. “Some people named us,” Razak recalled.
Fear quickly spread through the family after militants allegedly killed three villagers, including Razak’s brother-in-law.
Feeling unsafe and vulnerable, the family left everything behind and moved to Jammu in search of safety.
Now, nearly 30 years later, the family finds itself homeless once again.
On Tuesday, officials from the Forest Department, accompanied by police personnel, demolished around 25 to 30 homes in the Sidhra area.
Most of the affected families belonged to the tribal Gujjar and Bakarwal communities, including Razak’s family.
This time, however, the family says they have nowhere else to go. They are currently living in temporary tents set up on the same land where their homes once stood.
Razak and Khatoon Bi are officially registered as Kashmiri migrants and receive monthly cash assistance along with subsidised ration support.
Their son-in-law, Manzoor Ahmad, daughter Zareena Begum, and grandchildren Sameer and Afsana are also registered migrant beneficiaries. Their house, too, was reduced to rubble during the demolition drive.
Razak claimed that his migrant ration card, issued by the Office of the Relief Commissioner, remained buried under the debris because officials allegedly did not give him enough time to remove his belongings before the demolition began.
Meanwhile, Manzoor Ahmad still has his ration card, issued earlier this year, which identifies the family under the “KM” or Kashmiri Migrant category.
Following the rise of militancy in Kashmir in 1989, tens of thousands of Kashmiri Pandit families fled the Valley and settled in Jammu and other parts of the country.
Alongside them, thousands of Muslim families who faced threats from militants also migrated and were registered as Kashmiri migrants by the government.
Razak said that after arriving in Jammu in the late 1990s, the family initially lived in rented accommodation in Bhatindi. Over time, sympathetic locals encouraged them to settle on the open land in Sidhr, where they eventually built their home.
Successive governments later provided the area with basic facilities such as electricity and water connections, giving families hope that they had finally found some stability after years of displacement.
However, tensions over the land intensified in recent years as right-wing groups and local BJP leaders began demanding the eviction of people allegedly occupying forest and state land illegally.
Just days before the demolition drive, BJP MLA Vikram Randhawa led a protest in the Sidhra area demanding immediate action against encroachments.
Protesters blocked traffic for nearly two hours and warned of a larger agitation if authorities failed to act.
Within a week of the protest, forest officials and police personnel arrived with bulldozers near the Mahamaya temple area and demolished dozens of homes. Authorities later claimed that nearly 60 kanals of land had been reclaimed during the operation.
While Forest Department officials maintain that the demolished structures stood on forest land, Jammu and Kashmir’s Forest and Tribal Affairs Minister Javed Rana disputed the claim. He stated that the families were living on state land, not forest land.
After visiting the affected families, Rana assured them that action would be taken against officials responsible for the demolition if any wrongdoing was found.
He also urged Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to examine the role of police personnel involved in the drive.
The minister later announced the formation of a two-member fact-finding committee to investigate the demolitions and examine whether provisions of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, were violated.
The law grants certain protections to tribal communities living on forest land.
The committee has been asked to submit its findings within seven days, while families like Abdul Razak’s continue to wait in uncertainty — once again displaced, and once again searching for a place they can call home.
