On November 9, when Abdul Aziz Khatana, 38, had just reached Aru road in Pahalgam where he works as a labourer for a contractor, his phone buzzed. It was his wife who asked him to get back to his home at Lidroo village.
“Some people have demolished our hutment (Kotha),” she told him over the phone.
Khatana left the work midway and headed back home. He saw the structure had been razed to the ground. “This kotha was made by my grandparents,” he said.
Officials from the Pahalgam Development Authority (PDA), the Revenue Department, and the Forest Department had started dismantling the structures citing encroachment as the reason. Khatana said that around 500 people along with the police personnel had visited the site to dismantle the hutments.
These hutments are relatively at higher altitudes and are used by the people of the Gujjar tribe mostly in the summers. As the winters come, they either retreat to their houses in the plains or migrate to the Jammu region, mostly to Rajouri and Poonch.
It takes weeks of work and around one lakh rupees to construct one single Kotha, said Khatana.
“I was living there with my six family members and had moved just days before to another house as the winter set in,” he said. “But our livestock was still there.”
Now Khatana has been offered space by his neighbours for his livestock.
Denne historien er fra November 28, 2020-utgaven av Kashmir Life.
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Denne historien er fra November 28, 2020-utgaven av Kashmir Life.
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Before The Kabul Retreat
Described as the ‘Graveyard of Empires’, Afghanistan was always termed to be at peace when it was at war. But the land-locked desert country that was always in turmoil and one of the worst targets of the Great Game suffered immensely throughout, especially in the last 40 years, Masood Hussain writes
FINGERS CROSSED
Almost everybody in academia and politics that Khalid Bashir Gura spoke to, the response over Kabul happens was simple – wait and watch
Parliamentary Committee In Srinagar
The visiting 28-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs have had detailed interactions with top civil administration and discussed developmental scenario and people’s welfare measures in Jammu and Kashmir. It is on a 4-day visit. Congress leader and MP Anand Sharma is heading the committee.
MUSIC IN MUD HOUSE
Deep into north Kashmir, Faheem Mir meet a small community that sings and lives on folk music but is facing a tense situation in the last few years
THE KABUL SPILLOVER?
Security experts are divided over the possible impact of the Kabul situation on Kashmir. But the dramatic Taliban triumph has altered the region’s geopolitics, for the time being, writes Riyaz Wani
Durga Bhawan At Katra
To enhancing facilities for the convenience of the Vaishno Devi pilgrims, Lt Governor Manoj Sinha laid the foundation for the Durga Bhawan, a high utility pilgrim-centric facility worth Rs 24.4 crore. The facility will accommodate 4000 pilgrims.
Women Empowerment
In the first, 480 talented girls from Jammu and Kashmir were included in the degree and diploma courses of the Pragati Scholarship. Jammu and Kashmir has also got nine scholarships under the Saksham Scheme for Persons with Disabilities.
‘SOME HISTORIANS BELIEVE THAT AFGHANISTAN CONFLICT IS THE OUTCOME OF INDIA AND PAKISTAN KASHMIR STAND-OFF'
Foreign policy expert and editor of HardNews magazine, Sanjay Kapoor believes that Taliban 2.0 has more legitimacy unlike in the past as it had signed a deal with the US and negotiated with other countries of the region, but the final verdict can be passed only after it manages ticklish issues involving half of its population, the women
Boredom Is Creative?
Getting bored is not as boring as it gets, writes Azra Hussain
LG In Bangus
Lt Governor, Manoj Sinha inaugurated the Bungus Awaam Mela amidst grand arrangements for village games, exhilarating local performances, and other activities to celebrate the 75th year of Independence.
