Protester kills himself for Amarnath shrine land

HOLY ROW: Amarnath shrine board was given the land to build up facilities for pilgrims.

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Keywords: Pilgrims, Amarnath Land Row

Jammu: A man committed suicide in Jammu on Wednesday to protest the cancellation of land transfer to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), eyewitnesses and the police said.

Kuldip Kumar Dogra, in his late 20s, appeared at Parade Ground in Jammu and Kashmir's winter capital, where activists of the Amarnath Yatra Sangarash Samiti (AYSS) were on a hunger strike.

Dogra made an emotional speech to the gathering saying the revocation of the land transfer order to the shrine board had driven him desperate. He said that he was "sacrificing his life for the cause", said eyewitnesses.

''The protestor recited and then fainted,'' an eyewitness told UNI. Dogra, who allegedly had consumed some poisonous substance before he made the speech, fell unconscious. He was taken to a hospital where the doctors declared him dead, the police said.

Dogra left a suicide note blaming politicians for not doing anything against the land revocation order.

AYSS is demanding the allocation of nearly 40 hectares of forest land to the SASB, which was first diverted to the shrine board May 26 for setting up temporary prefabricated structures for pilgrims to a cave temple in Himalayas in south Kashmir.

But the issue triggered massive protests in Kashmir. Protesters in the Muslim-majority region charged the plot would be used to settle outsiders and change the demographic character of Kashmir.

The government rescinded the order July 1. That silenced the street protests in the Kashmir valley but ignited a counter agitation in Jammu, where protesters are still demanding allotment of the plot to the shrine board.