Jammu: Authorities Demolish Family Home of Journalist Who Linked Police Officer to Drug Smugglers

Srinagar: Authorities in Jammu on Thursday (November 27) demolished the family home of a journalist who had linked a police officer with suspected narcotics smugglers arrested in a major cross-border drug trafficking racket busted earlier this month.

The Jammu and Kashmir administration, however, denied allegations of selectively targeting Jammu-based journalist Arfaz Ahmad Daing, whose family home was demolished on Thursday morning amid heavy deployment of police and paramilitary troopers.

A senior J&K police officer denied Daing’s allegations against a deputy superintendent of police (DSP) posted as sub-divisional police officer of Jammu (East) who was transferred on October 26.

During a broadcast on News Sehar India, a Jammu-based digital platform with nearly half a million followers and subscribers across social media, Daing had also praised the new DSP who led the team that busted the drug racket.

“There is something going on between the two officers,” the police officer overseeing the drug-related investigation said, wishing to remain anonymous while refusing to specify more details. “We will investigate it.”

A source said that the demolition order was sent to the police by the Jammu Development Authority (JDA) at around 10 pm on Wednesday and that at least three to four heavy excavators were ushered into the area in Jammu’s Channi on Thursday morning to destroy the single-storied structure.

The demolition has rendered Daing’s family, including his elderly parents, his wife and their three children homeless.

Daing's family home was reduced to rubble. Photo: The Wire.

Speaking with The Wire, Daing admitted that the house was built on JDA land. However, he said that the house was registered in the name of his father Ghulam Qadir, who had built the single-storied structure some 40 years ago.

He alleged that the J&K high court had directed the JDA to remove encroachments from some areas of Jammu but that no action was taken because the encroachers were “influential people”.

“We got a [demolition] notice from the JDA but it was issued in my name, even though I didn’t own the house,” Daing said. “They were clearly after me due to my journalism. The legal process was thrown into the dustbin. Whatever has been done is unconstitutional. I am confident that the courts will give me justice, but it may take years. Where will I take my family till that time?”

The demolition was condemned by sections of civil society and journalists in Jammu.

Prominent Jammu-based civil society activist and senior advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed criticised the “selective” action while urging chief minister Omar Abdullah “to take action and establish the rule of law” in the Union territory.

“Was due process followed before the house was demolished? We have lieutenant governor [of Ladakh] Kavinder Gupta’s house in Jammu’s Janipur, which is also built on illegal land. Why has no action been taken in his case? Is this how Jammu and Kashmir is going to be administered?”

Abdullah is also minister of the housing and urban development department that runs the JDA.

Condemning the action, senior Jammu-based journalist Zafar Choudhary said that the allegations levelled by Daing and his family members against the police officer were “worrisome”.

“Chief minister Omar Abdullah should find out if due process of law was involved in this matter. Can the CM have himself convinced that this was a routine matter, fit in the eyes of law, and this family was not picked up from the queue for this ‘special treatment’. Sadly the bulldozer justice has already been illegally normalised under the cover of national security, and now personal irritations are also going to be allowed use the same tools? This is deeply disturbing [sic],” he said in a post on Facebook.

JDA officials could not be reached for comment on allegations that the legal procedure was not followed before the house was demolished.

The demolition took place days after the J&K police claimed to have busted a cross-border drug racket on November 14 with the recovery of 3.26 kilograms heroin from two accused near Jammu’s Shastri Nagar.

Although the police initially didn’t reveal the identities of the accused, Jammu's senior superintendent of police Joginder Singh later told a press conference that the accused were identified as Karan Sharma of Jourian and Nilesh Verma of Udhampur.

Singh said that an FIR numbered 249/2025 was filed at the Gandhi Nagar police station and that the “chain of the racket extended to Punjab and across the border”. He claimed that the two arrested were “in touch with handlers in Pakistan”.

The racket was busted by a police team led by DSP Sachit Sharma, who landed on the major drug haul valued at over Rs 22 crore in the international market within weeks after his posting in the area.

During the broadcast on the Facebook page of News Sehar India, Daing had praised Sharma among other police officers for cracking down on the drug mafia in Jammu.

Quoting official sources, Daing alleged that the police investigation had indicated that out of the three kg of heroin recovered by the Jammu police, one kg was meant to be handed to Mohammad Yusuf alias Shama, a history-sheeter from Narwal Bala in Jammu, his brother Mohammad Aslam, a former deputy sarpanch, and Yusuf’s son Aamir.

The Wire couldn’t independently verify these claims.

“Police raided their office and homes, during which Shama and Aslam fled while Aamir was taken to the Gandhi Nagar police station for investigation. This family has admitted in interviews that they used to make a living by driving horse carts. Today they have properties like houses and cars worth crores. Under the garb of a real estate business, they have accumulated wealth by selling heroin to youngsters for several years,” Daing alleged.

He continued: “These white collar criminals are poisoning our society with drugs. Police should seize their properties and investigate how they acquired their wealth.”

Quoting locals, the journalist alleged that the previous DSP was posted in the area “for several years” but he “deliberately” didn’t investigate the family, suggesting that he was also involved in drug smuggling.

A police source said that Daing has been named in four police FIRs since 2015, though he would not give out specific details of these cases. He also said that his house had been searched some years ago in connection with a terrorism case. The Wire couldn’t immediately verify this claim.

According to sources, Daing had bought a house in the Bhatindi area of Jammu from Shama’s family, who are reportedly in the real estate business. The house was demolished by the JDA some three to four months ago as it was allegedly found to have been built on state land.

“Daing and Shama had some altercation over it and some official complaints were filed,” sources said.

In his broadcast, Daing alleged that the former DSP had bought land from the accused family when he was posted as sub-divisional police officer of Jammu (East). “He is building a house on that land these days. Why was no action taken against the family during his tenure? It needs to be investigated and strict punishment should be given to the accused,” Daing alleged.

Daing reports from outside his family home as it is demolished. Photo: Screenshot from News Sehar India/Facebook.

In a 50-second video live-streamed on New Sehar India’s Facebook page from outside Daing’s house on Thursday morning, a couple of police officials overseeing the demolition were caught attempting to stop the broadcast by snatching the camera.

“Please don’t touch him. We are not disturbing you,” Daing urged one of the police officials who was wielding an AK-47 rifle slung across his chest with his right hand grasping a wooden baton.

Turning to the camera, he continued: “Many people have encroached upon government land in Jammu, but only my house has been chosen for demolition because we show the truth. We have been living here for 40 years. I am only asking the authorities for some more time.”

“I am a journalist. See, see…”, he shouted, as the camera shook and the broadcast cut out.

Authorities had sealed the area and a handful of journalists who had come to report on the demolition that started at around 9:30 am on Thursday were kept away from the site.

Speaking with the media, Qadir, Daing’s distraught father, said that he fled Doda district due to militancy some four decades ago.

“The JDA didn’t even exist when this house was built. I have worked as a labourer to raise my children. Those who have hundreds of kanals of land under illegal occupation have been left untouched while poor people are being targeted. This is injustice,” Qadir said, as his house was demolished in the background.

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