Not against yatra: protesting panel

Even as the Action Committee against forest land transfer on Thursday reiterated that its “struggle” was not against the Amarnath Yatra or pilgrims but against the J-K Government, the state unit of the BJP demanded a judicial probe by a retired Supreme Court judge into all land transfers after 1975 around Jammu where constructions have come up on the forest land.

The saffron party has alleged that demographic change is not happening in Kashmir, but in Jammu, which needs to be looked into. Similar demands were raised by other Jammu-based parties, who stressed that forest land had been transferred at many places in the state, but nobody seemed to be concerned.

The Action Committee on its part has asked the people of Kashmir to thwart the “nefarious designs of the saffron parties, who want to give a communal colour to these protests”. An umbrella group of organisations that oppose the transfer of forest land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, the committee also rejected the invite of Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad for an all-party meeting. “They (BJP and others) want to give it a communal colour. They want to disturb the centuries old Hindu-Muslim communal harmony,” said Committee chief Mian Abdul Qayoom.