Accelerating fast!
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Such activities as the following on the part of Pakistan's army have increased in AJK over the past few years in particular. Wherever they find a scenic abode to their liking in our territory, they begin construction without any due procedure of consulting the local people or the government. This always has a devastating effect on the local environment as well as society living nearby.
It also creates fear and intimidation in the local people whose normal day to day life gets affected and gradually they are deprived of access of local natural amenities for themselves, their families and livestock.
There are no military or security compulsions for the Pakistani army to engage in such intrusive activity. It is either commercially related or a source of entertainment for them.
We have maintained contact with the locals, some of whom have tried to obtain legal reprieve in the shape of a 'stay order'. Even that, they are doing in a discreet manner so as not to invite reprisal from the Pakistani Army.
Others locals have opined that there doesn't appear to be any security compulsion for such encroachment. One even went to the extent of saying that, "We know that the Indian army is not interested in sustaining conflict and is more focused on economy, while the Pakistani army continues to give this false perception that they are under constant threat from the Indians!"
Meanwhile, we did raise this issue with the Assistant Commissioner's (AC) office in Sehnsa. The AC himself avoided meeting us on a couple of occasions as the fear of the Pakistani army runs deep in our administration. However, we understand that he did interact with the Pakistani army on his own initiative and gave them some idea of what to expect in terms of local resistance.
Indeed, we have chalked out a strategy of demilitarisation which we are implementing gradually. They have been ousted from a couple of other places in our subdivision before and likewise will be ousted from here too.
Thriya (Afzalpur) also happens to be my adjacent village as well as the village of our current member of the AJK Legislative Assembly (MLA) Choudhary Ikhlaq.
Watch this space....
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Coverage of Sehnsa from nearby Poonch:
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