A forest eviction drive on Monday turned ugly in a forest area of south Kashmir’s Shopian district, leaving 18 persons including five local journalists injured.
An official told Greater Kashmir that the incident occurred when a team of forest officials accompanied by Forest Protection Force showed up in Tragpathri area of the district and tried to launch an eviction drive.
The encroachers, mostly the people from Gujjar community, according to the official, resisted the drive and started attacking the officials.
“Initially there were a few punchs and later the encroachers held the officials including the journalists, who had come to cover the drive, hostage and started beating them,” said the official.
He said that 10 forest officials, five local journalists, and three others suffered injuries during the scuffle.
The injured journalists were identified as Aijaz Ahmad Dar, Firdose Ahmad, ShahidTak,Irshad Ahmad and Nazir Ahmad.
Dar said that they were attacked by the mob despite they informing them that they were journalists and had come to cover the drive.
“They did not listen to us and even tore my clothes,” Dar said.
The members of the Gujjar community, however, said that they had erected the temporary sheds and the forest officials launched the drive without serving them any notice.
They alleged that they were physically assaulted by the officials, causing injuries to three members of the community.
Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Muhammad Ayoub Sheikh told Greater Kashmir that the drive was launched in line with the orders of the High Court. He said that the encroachers had already been served the notices a few months ago and were asked to prove their claims on the land.
“After they failed to prove such claims, the department initiated the eviction drive,” Sheikh said.