The Seizure Of Kashmiri Property: India’s Campaign Of Economic Repression

The recent wave of property seizures in Indian held Jammu and Kashmir is not a string of random acts. It is a clear and cruel plan to break the will of a people who only ask to choose their own future. Using harsh laws like the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and drug rules, police and officials are taking homes, land and shops from ordinary families. These moves punish Kashmiris for asking for rights, for speaking up for their freedom and for seeking self rule. The result is simple and brutal. People lose their homes, their savings and the chance to earn a living.

Property Attachment As Punishment

• Nature Of Seizure: Police attach houses and land under broad charges that let the state freeze assets fast.
• Legal Cover: Tough laws are used to take property and keep it locked up for years without real public proof.
• Effect On Families: Homes are taken, small shops close and farmers lose fields so families sink into poverty.

A recent case in Jammu shows a double storey house, worth nearly two crore rupees, being taken under a long list of charges. The owner and his family were left without a roof and without income. This is not one case. It is part of a wider step by the state to punish those who do not bow down. The cost is always the same. People lose what they worked for and their ability to feed their families.

A Set Policy Not A Few Errors

• Pattern Of Seizure: Similar takeovers across districts show this is planned rather than accidental.
• Targeted People: Those who speak for rights or who are linked to local leaders are hit again and again.
• Economic Aim: Taking property makes it hard for people to resist and forces them to depend on the state.

This is not law in action. It is punishment dressed up as law. By cutting off income and taking land the state strips people of what they need to survive and to speak up. Markets close, shops shut, and farms go unused. Entire neighbourhoods grow weaker and more open to outside control. That is the goal. Turn the place into a quieter and poorer version of itself so people stop asking for their rights.

Labeling And Shame: Turning People Into Criminals

• Branding As Criminal: Officials call people “narco terrorists” or “anti nationals” to justify seizures.
• Public Shame: These names push neighbours away and stop others from helping families who lose property.
• Legal Trap: Once labelled, families fight long and costly court battles to prove their innocence.

The state often uses harsh labels without showing clear proof in public. These tags stick. They make it easy to take property and to cut people off from help. Families are left to defend themselves in courts that move slowly while their homes remain in state hands. Over time these fake labels change who can live and work in Kashmir.

Demographic Change: A Quiet Move To Replace Locals

• Opening The Door: Once property is taken, outsiders can move in or state linked buyers can step in.
• Breaking Local Hold: Losing land and homes breaks the link between people and place and forces families to move away.
• Long Term Loss: The right to live where one’s family lived for years is being taken by law and force.

These seizures do more than hurt money. They change who lives in the region. When locals lose houses and land they often have no choice but to leave. That slow change in who owns and lives on the land is a quiet way to push out a people. It is not development. It is planned removal in plain clothes.

Crushing Dissent: Punishment For Asking For Rights

• Target For Voice: Seizures often follow public calls for self rule or peaceful protest.
• Silencing Effect: Losing land and work makes it much harder for people to speak up again.
• Broken Promises: Denying political choice and taking property together break basic promises made to people.

Kashmiris who ask for their right to choose their future face arrests, bans on gatherings and now the loss of property. This mix of steps is clearly meant to scare people into silence. It is political punishment that goes far beyond normal law and reason.

The Human Cost: Real Lives, Real Loss

• Families Hit Hard: Seized property means lost homes, closed shops and legal fights that many cannot pay for.
• Young People Suffer: With work gone and farms lost, young people see no future and many leave.
• Social Damage: Each seizure feeds fear and breaks trust between neighbours and the state.

The damage is not only money. It is the loss of safety, of hope and of place. When people see homes taken with little proof, they lose trust and start to hate the state that took them. That hate grows and fuels unrest. This is how a peaceful place can turn into a place full of anger.

Majoritarian Rule And State Power Used As A Weapon

• Political Backing: Hardline groups and state leaders push for action and officials respond with force.
• Institutional Bias: Police and local officials act to meet political aims rather than to be fair.
• Dangerous Pattern: When one identity rules by fear, every voice that differs is treated as a crime.

The larger political climate in New Delhi gives cover to these harsh moves. When the state favours one side and treats another as a threat, government power becomes a blunt weapon to reshape society. Officials do not act as neutral guardians of law. They act as agents of a plan to punish a whole people for their demands and identity.

What The World Must Do: Hold India To Account

• Independent Checks: Allow outside monitors to look into how these laws are used and how property is seized.
• Diplomatic Pressure: Countries and world bodies should use public criticism, travel limits and targeted steps against those who order abuses.
• Legal Action: Push for cases to be raised in international courts where victims can seek real justice.

The international community cannot act as if this is only an internal matter. Taking homes and land as a form of punishment is an attack on basic human rights. The UN and world bodies must step in with real pressure to stop this plan to crush a people’s life. The world should demand that seized property be returned and that those who ordered these acts face real review.

Conclusion: Expose, Reverse And Restore Rights

Seizing property under the cover of harsh laws is theft by the state. It hits the poor and the proud alike and aims to break the will of a people who only ask to choose their future. India’s actions must be exposed, sharply criticised and stopped. The international community must step in to force the return of stolen homes, to demand fair trials and to make sure human rights matter more than political goals. Only when stolen land is returned and the right to speak up is safe can the road to peace and justice start to reopen.