Srinagar: Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling that bulldozer demolitions reflected a “lawless, ruthless state of affairs”, several tribal families were left homeless in Jammu following an “anti-encroachment” drive which was launched by the Jammu and Kashmir administration on Tuesday (May 19). The demolition took place days after a senior Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) leader and legislator of Jammu’s Bahu constituency, Vikram Randhawa, threatened to demolish the homes of Kashmiris and “certain community” (Gujjars) in Jammu which he alleged were built on encroached land. Randhawa himself faces accusation of encroaching eight kanal of land (in khasra no 211) at Chak Ganeshu village in the Mandal tehsil of Jammu where a stone crusher plant has been set up. He has denied the allegation, arguing that the matter was sub judice. Upping the ante, J&K forest minister and senior National Conference leader Javed Ahmad Rana blamed the BJP-led Union government for the demolition drive while terming it as a “preplanned conspiracy” to divide the people of Jammu and Kashmir along the communal lines. “I have seen this naked dance for the first time. It is regrettable that there are black sheep in our democratic country who want to break the communal harmony in J&K. It is the policy of the Union government to divide and rule. Those responsible for this act will be punished,” Rana told reporters after meeting the affected families.Deeply shocked & outraged by the clandestine, unilateral demolition of homes in Sidhra, Jammu by the LG Administration. Decades of heritage of our innocent Gujjar-Bakarwal families has been reduced to rubble without taking the elected, popular Government or my Ministry into…— JAVED AHMED RANA (@JavedRanaa) May 19, 2026According to reports, a large contingent of police and paramilitary personnel laid a siege around a locality of Muslim families from the tribal Gujjar community in Sidhra area of Jammu in the wee hours of Tuesday along with bulldozer machines. Last week, the Gujjar community in Jammu staged a protest against the remarks of Randhawa who claimed that 95% land in the winter capital of J&K was allegedly encroached by Kashmiris and the “certain community”.The locality where the demolition drive was carried out on Tuesday is part of Raika forest belt of the lower Shivalik range in Jammu. Officials claimed that some 20-30 structures, some of them residential houses, were allegedly illegally built in the area on state land which were demolished during the drive and 60 kanal of land was retrieved. However, J&K minister Rana and locals disputed the claim, saying that the affected families had been living in the area for nearly five decades. Locals also alleged that the authorities didn’t follow the mandatory guidelines before their houses were demolished due to which they have turned homeless. Also read: J&K BJP MLA Who Alleged Land-Grabbing by Kashmiris Was Served Notice For Alleged Encroachment in 2021As per Supreme Court guidelines, authorities are barred from demolishing residential houses without a mandatory 15-day prior show-cause notice which has to be sent via registered post and affixed to the property listed for demolition.Visuals from the scene of the demolition show mounds of debris where homes once stood while shell-shocked residents guard some of their belongings that they seem to have salvaged before the bulldozer machines swung into action on Tuesday morning. “My daughter is getting married soon. Her dowry items were inside. I was offering prayers. They tore down all the items and demolished everything including a sofa and an almirah. We are not outsiders. We have been living here for several decades. Where will we go now?” asked an anguished woman whose house was demolished, speaking to a reporter.Asked about the administration’s allegation that many new houses have been built on the state land, another affected woman resident admitted that there were three houses in the area in 1947.“The whole world has changed after 1947. Were these three families not supposed to grow? We have proper water and electricity connections but they didn’t even give us notices before demolishing our homes. This is totally unfair,” she said. A report quoting an unnamed official claimed that there were “few structures” in the area and “scores of illegal structures have come up while new constructions continue”.The demolition drive is likely to turn into a political flashpoint between the ruling National Conference and the opposition BJP and sharpen the fault lines between the Muslim-majority Kashmir and the Hindu-dominated Jammu region in coming days. Meanwhile, J&K RTI Movement, a coalition of tribal groups and civil society activists, termed the demolition drive as a “ruthless assault on human dignity, constitutional rights, and the spirit of justice promised under the Forest Rights Act, 2006”.“Families were uprooted without compassion, rehabilitation, or proper legal procedure. Reports that even the Holy Quran and basic household belongings could not be rescued before the demolition expose the shocking insensitivity and inhumanity of the operation,” a statement by the coalition said.The coalition demanded a judicial inquiry into the demolition drive and rehabilitation for the affected families while urging the authorities to file an FIR under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.