By Jehangir Ali
Srinagar: A Jammu-based journalist whose family home was demolished last month is planning to go on a hunger strike in protest against the police and civil administration who have not yet initiated any action against the officials involved in the “illegal” demolition drive.
Seeking police protection, Ghulam Qadir Daing, the father of journalist Arfaz Ahmad Daing, has also claimed that he was receiving “indirect threats” possibly “in retaliation, intimidation, or to silence my complaint” against the officials who were involved in the demolition drive.
In a complaint to J&K Police on December 10, Ghulam Qadir named the Jammu Development Authority (JDA) chairman Rupesh Kumar, tehsildar Megha Gupta and other unnamed civil and police officials as the members of the squad which levelled his single-storied house in Jammu’s Channi on November 27.
The demolition had triggered widespread outrage across Jammu and Kashmir, prompting a Hindu neighbour to give away a plot of land to the family in a gesture aimed at reflecting the Hindu-Muslim amity.
The elected government led by chief minister Omar Abdullah had blamed the lieutenant governor administration for ordering the demolition drive which has washed its hands from the issue.
Accusing the officials of “misuse of power, illegal assistance, and dereliction of duty,” Ghulam Qadir claimed that the demolition was carried out “without issuing any notice, without following any due process of law, and in a selective and arbitrary manner”.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
