Centre’s panel on demographic changes reaches Jammu, meets local groups
A high-level committee studying demographic changes, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar, on Tuesday (August 11, 2026) held interactions with civil
A high-level committee studying demographic changes, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar, on Tuesday (August 11, 2026) held interactions with civil society groups in Jammu. BJP leader and Leader of Opposition in Jammu and Kashmir Sunil Sharma warned of Pakistan’s bids at “infiltration, illegal settlement and land jehad”. The committee visited Jagti Migrant Township in Nagrota, Jammu, which is the largest colony of Kashmiri Pandits who left the Kashmir valley in the face of raging militancy in the 1990s. The panel comprises Census Commissioner Mritunjay Kumar, retired IAS officer Durga Shankar Mishra, retired IPS officer Balaji Srivastava and economist Shamika Ravi.
“Jagti is home to more than 5,000 Kashmiri Pandit families. The committee met the residents and interacted with them. It listened carefully to their sentiments and suggestions,” said Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner (Migrants) Arvind Karwani. Inspected a slum The committee also inspected a slum allegedly housing Rohingya immigrants in the Narwal area of Jammu. A delegation of refugees from Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) also met it, besides other Jammu bodies. “Today was a landmark day for Jammu. A high-powered committee from Delhi is here to understand how demographic changes are happening here and how the last frontier of living Bharatiya civilisation-based society is under assault,” said a spokesperson of the Jammu State People’s Movement (JSPM).
The four-member committee arrived in the Union Territory on a three-day visit on Monday (August 10) and also met J&K Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo and Director General of Police (DGP) Nalin Prabhat. The Centre constituted the high-level panel in May this year “to study demographic changes in different parts of the country, arising from illegal immigration and other reasons, and to suggest measures”. Pakistan’s infiltration: BJP Meanwhile, BJP leader Mr. Sharma alleged that Pakistan “was trying to alter the demographic fabric of J&K through infiltration, illegal settlement and land jehad”. “The way this Muslim-majority State is now a Union Territory, Pakistan’s terrorism tried to make Jammu and Kashmir Hindu-Veheem [Hindu-free].
To some extent, they were successful in Kashmir. After failing in Kashmir, the conspirators created another plan under which illegal citizens were infiltrated into Jammu and other States to change the demographic,” said Mr. Sharma. He claimed that forest land, State land or private land were “encroached by a particular community”. “The Central government has taken these facts seriously and constituted the high-level committee,” he added. The BJP leader said he hoped that “truth will be revealed to the Indian government”. “There should be strict laws for this,” he added.
The BriefWire