Pakistan conspiring to alter J&K demography: Sunil Sharma

Srinagar, Aug 11: Leader of Opposition in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly and senior BJP leader Sunil Sharma on Tuesday alleged that Pakistan has been trying to alter the demographic fabric of the Union Territory through “infiltration and illegal settlement”, terming the move as “Land Jihad”.
BJP senior leader claimed that Jammu and Kashmir was historically a “purely Sanatan state”, citing the Neelamath Purana and Rajatarangini, and alleged that invaders from Central Asia, Turkey and Portugal resorted to forced conversions in the region.
“The way this Muslim-majority state is now a Union Territory, Pakistan’s terrorism tried to make Jammu and Kashmir Hindu-Veheem (Hindu-free). To some extent, they were successful in Kashmir. There, the Kashmiri Pandit Hindu society was exalted and exodus took place,” the BJP leader told reporters here.
He further alleged that after failing in Kashmir, the conspirators created another plan under which illegal citizens were infiltrated into Jammu and other states “by changing the demographic” to succeed in their conspiracy.
“In this effort, many places were encroached. Whether it is forest land, state land or private land, by encroaching, a particular community was tried to be settled there,” BJP leader said, citing an example of a village where the population of a community rose from just one family in 2005 to nearly 5,000 within 20 years.
The senior BJP leader said that the Central government has taken these facts “seriously” and constituted a high-level committee to look into the demographic changes in Jammu and Kashmir.
“Today, this committee is in J&K. Although political parties have not been invited, all stakeholders who are involved or who will be able to reveal the truth, they are collecting information from all those people,” Sunil Sharma said, expressing hope that the truth will be revealed.
“We have full hope that all this truth will be revealed to the Indian government. There will be strict laws for this. And a part second of pure terrorism, which we also call Land Jihad, will be attacked and destroyed by the demographic change,” he added. (KNS)