SRINAGAR: Senior leader All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) and Chairman Democratic Freedom Party Shabir Ahmed Shah has condemned in strong terms the confiscation of land and properties of Muslims by the occupation authorities in the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

In his message from Tihar jail the APHC leader while referring to government’s land eviction orders said that forced evictions and illegal seizure of land and properties of Kashmiri Muslims was part of the BJP government’s policy to reduce them to second class citizens.

He said that the BJP has a notorious track record of persecuting Muslims on one pretext or the other. He said that after exhausting all means of oppression and suppression against Kashmiri Muslims the apartheid regime has now crafted a new scheme to terrorise poor farmers in the region. The poor farmers, he said were being evicted from their marginal land holdings in the name of anti-encroachment drive while the state land was being dolled out to non state subjects under the guise of so-called development and foreign investment.

Eviction of Kashmiris from their lands was part of the government’s campaign to bring material change in the region by settling outsiders across Jammu region and in other parts of the Kashmir valley

Terming it as an atrocious attempt to deprive Kashmiris of their lands he said that it was high time that the political leadership, civil society, rights groups and all segments of the society should raise their voice against these injustices.

Shabir Ahmed Shah said that Kashmiris were facing a serious existential threat under the India’s fascist government that seeks to control by hook or by crook the Kashmiris, their land and properties.

Shah said that the world community should play its much needed role to help resolve the lingering dispute that happens to be main source of tension in the region.