Indian government has completed construction of several separate colonies to settle non-locals in the Kashmir Valley in the guise of Pandits’ rehabilitation to change the Muslim majority status of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, .
Most of the colonies have been constructed in Bandipore, Baramulla, Srinagar and Badgam areas where Indian forces’ personnel as well as Indian employees would be settled on permanent basis in the name of rehabilitation of Pandits.
As per international law, India cannot fiddle with the demography of Jammu and Kashmir, which is a disputed territory under United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, which pledge that the final status of the territory is to be determined as per right to self-determination.
This is a third attempt on part of India to change the demography of occupied Jammu and Kashmir, which comprises three regions; Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh.
The first demographic change was effected dur-ing August to November in 1947 when the Muslims of Jammu were massacred under a premeditated plan devised jointly by the then Dogra ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, fanatic Hindu groups and leaders of the Indian National Congress. Horace Alexander, an English writer in his article published on January 16, 1948 in The Spectator put the number killed at 200,000. However, Ian Stephens proved with refer-ences that around half a million people were killed and another 200,000 went missing.
Due to this massacre and large-scale displace-ment of Muslims, the community went from a ma-jority of 61% to a minority of 30% in Jammu region.
The demography was fiddled once again after the enactment of the Agrarian Reforms Act, 1976. The Act gave ownership rights to tillers of the land. Thousands of non-Kashmiris were shown as tillers after the tampering of records and were given own-ership status.
During the years 2001–2011, the number of Hindus witnessed considerable increase in both Leh and Kargil districts of Ladakh region. In Ladakh as a whole, the proportion of Hindus has risen from 6.2% in 2001 to 12.1% in 2011. Experts believe that that such a massive growth of 100% in the population of Hindus in Ladakh in a period of ten years is, naturally, unimaginable.—KMS
