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Land given to temple taken back
The Jammu and Kashmir Government on Sunday said it will retain the forest land allotted to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB).
- IANS
- Published: 23:41 June 29, 2008
- Azad said the state government would revoke its decision to transfer forest land to a Hindu shrine trust after a week of violent protests by Muslims.
- Image Credit: Reuters
Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir Government on Sunday said it will retain the forest land allotted to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB).
However, protests and demonstrations continued for the seventh day in the Kashmir Valley and security restrictions remained in force in Srinagar.
Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said: "The government has taken up the responsibility of managing the Amarnath yatra [pilgrimage] that includes providing security and facilities to the pilgrims."
Some groups in the Hindu dominated Jammu region held protests against the government's decision.
As TV channels flashed the news of the state government preparing to take over arrangements of the pilgrimage, activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Bajrang Dal, and the Panun Kashmir, a group of Kashmiri Hindu migrants, took to the streets and held demonstrations denouncing the government for "dismantling the SASB".
They raised slogans against Azad and called him a "stooge of fundamentalists".
Earlier yesterday, in an attempt to defuse the highly surcharged atmosphere triggered by the controversial forest land transfer, Governor N.N. Vohra asked the state government to take the charge of managing the pilgrimage.
"The government will make all temporary facilities on the forest land for the convenience of the pilgrims," Azad said.
The move came a day after the People's Democratic Party (PDP) left the government in crisis by pulling out of the Congress-led coalition amid differences over the allotment of the forest land in north Kashmir Baltal.
The Kashmir Valley has witnessed violent protests in the past week, after the state government on March 5 allotted 40 hectares of forest land to the SASB, which till now managed the annual pilgrimage to the Hindu cave shrine in south Kashmir.
Muslims in the Kashmir Valley are opposed to the allotment order and allege the board would use the land to settle "outsiders" in the area and thus change the region's demography.
Demonstration
Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, chairman of the moderate faction of the All Party Hurriyat Conference, led a massive protest demonstration in the old city.
The Mirwaiz led procession, shouting pro-freedom and anti-India slogans culminated in a meeting at the residence of Sameer Ahmad, a 24-year-old youth who died last week in the alleged CRPF firing at Fateh Kadal.
"The authorities should show us the land allotment cancellation order. The protests will continue... we will take the freedom struggle to its logical conclusion," the Mirwaiz told the mourners.
Meanwhile, political crisis in the election-bound state continued following the PDP's decision on Saturday to withdraw from the ruling coalition reducing the government to minority.
The opposition National Conference, the single largest party in the state legislative assembly, ruled out any support to the government if it failed to get a vote of confidence in the assembly.
"We will neither join the Congress-led government nor support it from outside," National Conference president Omar Abdullah told the media.
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