According to data from the Jammu and Kashmir Waqf Board, over 32,000 kanals of land fall under its administration바카라”one kanal is about 5,445 square feet. Yet, large portions of land remain undocumented or partially registered. The 바카라˜waqf by user바카라™ principle allowed such properties to be legally recognised based on their consistent communal use, even in the absence of formal documentation. With the new Waqf law to govern Muslim properties바카라”that gives the government a larger role in validating their landholdings바카라”there바카라™s a fear among the local people that these sacred spaces might be reclassified, disputed or even quietly erased.
WATCH | Kashmir바카라™s Sacred Spaces Under Threat? New Waqf Law Sparks Fears of Erasure
In every corner of the Kashmir Valley, there are shrines, mosques, seminaries and Sufi lodges. Like many other places, in Kashmir too, religious and charitable land was often created through oral trust-based agreements. A Sufi lodge might have been built where a mystic often stopped to pray and share his teachings with the local community.
