By: Zulfiqar Ali, Shahzeb Afzal, Shujaat Mir (Kashmir Investigation Team)
MUZAFFARABAD (Kashmir English): A total of 58,910 kanals of land of the Azad Kashmir government have been encroached, costing government the tens of billions of rupees.
The documents available with Kashmir Digital revealed that around 11,668 kanals of forest land while 47,232 kanals of Khalsa Sarkar land have been encroached by land grabbing mafia. The encroached land includes 0.17 per cent of forest land and 1.6 per cent of Khalsa Sarkar land across the Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
The three districts of Kotli, Mirpur, and Bhimber have the highest amount of government’s encroached land.
As per details, 17,672 kanals of Khalsa Sarkar land and 9,280 kanals of forest land have been occupied in Kotli district. While the land mafia in the Mirpur district has occupied 14,384 kanals of Khalsa land and 552 kanals of forest land.
Similarly, 3,736 kanals of Khalsa land and 744 kanals of forest land have been grabbed by the land mafia in Bhimber district. The document stated that 2,672 kanals of Khalsa Sarkar land and 1,640 kanals of forest land have encroached in the Sidhnoti district.
An official told KIT that 2,384 kanals of Khalsa land and 1,544 kanals of forest land have encroached in Muzaffarabad district, the value of which is estimated to be around Rs 25 billion.
In Rawalakot district, 2,168 kanals of Khalsa land and 800 kanals of forest land have been encroached by land mafia.
In Neelum district, the land grabbers encroached 1,248 kanals of Khalsa land and 2,024 kanals of forest land. In the Jhelum Valley district, 1,056 kanals of Khalsa land and 928 kanals of forest land have been occupied.
Moreover, 976 kanals of Khalsa land and 1504 kanals of forest land have been occupied in Bagh district. In Haveli district, 968 kanals of Khalsa Sarkar land have been occupied, while 848 kanals of forest land have been encroached in the same district.
Apart from the grabbing of Khalsa Sarkar and forest lands, cooperative, Auqaf and abandoned lands have also been encroached across Azad Kashmir.
