Srinagar, May 09 (KMS): In occupied Kashmir, the border fencing has proved costly for poor farmers of nearly a dozen villages close to the Line of Control (LoC), as they had been deprived of their agricultural fields.

Restrictions imposed by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) have further affected adversely their only source of livelihood. Some farmers have lost their entire fields to the border fencing.

“Border fencing has hit us hard as a major chunk of our agricultural fields have been fenced out leaving us at the mercy of BSF to take up cultivation,” said Paras Ram of Changiya village.

Bhushan Dass of Chak Gorian said that agriculture was the only source of their livelihood and as their land had been acquired for border fencing, they were on the verge of starvation.

It may be recalled that the puppet administration had also admitted that the BSF in certain villages had forcibly acquired land to erect the border fence.