| Notice served, clock ticking: Bhalwal becomes next Rohingya crackdown zone | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Sept 19: The demolition drive against illegal Rohingya settlements in Jammu is widening. After clearing out Narwal, the district administration has now set its sights on Bhalwal, issuing formal notices to plot owners accused of housing infiltrators on their land.
Officials have warned that if the makeshift settlements aren't vacated, those responsible will face criminal cases — and possible arrests. According to security agencies, roughly 50 Rohingya families are currently living in Bhalwal, with landowners reportedly charging them Rs 2,000 to 3,000 a month for electricity, water and land use. None of these occupants have undergone police verification — a detail officials are treating as a serious security concern.
The notices invoke Section 133-A of the Jammu and Kashmir Land Revenue Act, 1996, which bars the unauthorised conversion of agricultural land for non-agricultural use. Officials say this constitutes a clear violation of the Act, opening the door to action under Section 133-C and other applicable provisions.
The land in question in Narwal — spread across khasra numbers 303/156, 132, 304/156, 131, 130 and 153 — is registered in the names of Noor Hussain, Shafi Mohammad, Ghulam Nabi, Rasool Mohammad and their relatives.
The Narwal case, involving the commercial misuse of roughly 40 kanals of agricultural land to illegally house a Rohingya settlement, saw accused plot owners appear before the District Magistrate's court on Friday. Sources say they've been granted one more week to comply, with an unambiguous directive: the land must be completely cleared — not a single shanty should remain.
The crackdown isn't expected to stop at Jammu city limits. Security agencies say Rohingya settlements have also sprung up in the urban and peripheral areas of Kathua and Samba districts, with a significant concentration in the industrial belt of Bari Brahmana. Officials indicate the scope of enforcement will now expand to these areas as well.
The scale of the issue came into sharper focus in August, when a high-level committee set up by the Jammu and Kashmir government to study demographic changes reported that 6,737 Rohingya and 46 Bangladeshi nationals were residing across the 10 districts of the Jammu division. |
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