By Jehangir Ali
Srinagar: A Jammu-based social activist has donated his land to a journalist whose house was demolished by authorities in a gesture aimed at reflecting faith towards Hindu-Muslim amity.
Handing over the land papers to the journalist Arfaz Ahmad Daing, Kuldeep Sharma, a resident of the Jewel area, was in tears as he vowed to uphold Hindu-Muslim unity in Jammu, a stronghold of the Bharatiya Janata Party and a hotspot of communal tensions in the Union territory.
“I will build a house for you even if I have to beg for funds,” Sharma told Daing. “The conspiracy of pitting Hindus against Muslims will never succeed. Our brotherhood will always exist. You are a good man. May your children prosper”.
Daing’s house was demolished days after he sought to link a police officer – a deputy superintendent of police posted as Sub Divisional Police Officer Jammu (East) who was transferred on October 26 – with suspected narcotics smugglers arrested in a major cross-border drug trafficking racket busted earlier this month. The J&K administration has denied allegations that the journalist was selectively targeted, arguing that the house was built on state land.
A senior J&K police officer also denied that there was truth in Daing’s reporting on the narcotics bust.
‘Shame on the government’
Pointing to a makeshift tarpaulin dwelling set up near the ruins of Daing’s house in Jammu’s Channi locality, Sharma continued: “See, his kids are sitting in the open. Shame on the government. Even after being this country’s citizens, people are being made homeless”.
Tania Sharma, the social activist’s daughter, told reporters that she felt a sense of pride in her father’s decision, “I am very sad. How can anyone be turned homeless overnight? He [Daing] is like a brother to me. Not just me, my family and the entire community stands with him.”
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
