Jammu: Authorities in Jammu on Thursday demolished the family home of journalist Arfaz Ahmad Daing, days after he linked a police officer to suspected narcotics smugglers arrested in a major cross-border drug trafficking case, The Wire reported, citing interviews with Daing and officials.
The Jammu and Kashmir administration has denied allegations of targeting the Jammu-based journalist, whose single-storied house in Channi was torn down early Thursday amid heavy police and paramilitary deployment.
A senior J&K police officer dismissed Daing’s claims against a deputy superintendent of police who was recently shifted out of the Jammu (East) subdivision.
In his broadcast on News Sehar India, a digital platform with nearly half a million followers, Daing had also praised the DSP who spearheaded the drug-racket bust.
“There is something going on between the two officers,” another police officer supervising the drug investigation told The Wire, requesting anonymity. “We will investigate it.”
According to a source quoted by The Wire, the Jammu Development Authority (JDA) sent a demolition order to police around 10 pm Wednesday.
By Thursday morning, excavators and a large security contingent had moved into the neighbourhood to raze the house.
The demolition has rendered Daing’s elderly parents, his wife and their three children homeless.
Speaking to The Wire, Daing acknowledged the structure stood on JDA land but said it was built by his father, Ghulam Qadir, nearly four decades ago. He alleged that influential encroachers were spared while action was taken only against his family.
“We got a notice, but it was issued in my name even though I didn’t own the house,” he told The Wire. “They were clearly after me because of my journalism. The legal process was thrown into the dustbin.”
The demolition has drawn strong criticism from sections of civil society and journalists in Jammu.
