Srinagar, June 12 -- Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Iltija Mufti on Thursday joined locals of a village in Bijbehara and planted paddy to show solidarity with the farmers of a few south Kashmir villages, who were warned against sowing on the fields believed to belong to the government. Villagers have maintained that they have been farming on the land for the past eight decades. The PDP said that its leader Iltija Mufti joined villagers at Tulkhun, Bijbehara, in sowing paddy fields, standing in "solidarity with families facing the threat of losing land they have cultivated for decades". "She reaffirmed her support for farmers and questioned attempts to dispossess people of their only source of livelihood and sustenance," a party spokesperson said. Iltija said that they will fight for J&K's agrarian heritage. "Dispossessing farmers of their fertile land only to convert it into a concrete jungle makes no sense. Zamindars kept J&K's economy going during the state's most turbulent times," Mufti said. "Planting a rice sapling in Kashmir's fertile fields today has become an act of defiance. Stop criminalising the livelihood of farmers who sustained not just their families but J&K's economy even during militancy. Stand with Kashmir's farmers," she said. Mufti said that the farmers in Tulkhan have been called to police stations for sowing the land. "Since morning, 10-15 farmers have been arrested by police and I don't understand because agriculture has been their source of livelihood for centuries. But for the past few weeks, the revenue department has been sending notices to farmers growing paddy in such fields first in Dangerpora and now Tulkhan," she said. "Today neither I have a stone in my hand nor a gun, I carry a rice sapling and I don't think the livelihood of Kashmiri people should be criminalised," she said. On Monday, Iltija Mufti visited Dangerpora and alleged that the revenue department was trying to snatch 2,000 kanals of fertile agricultural land in Dangerpora, Pulwama from poor families who've cultivated paddy for centuries. PDP leader Waheed Para and former District Development Council vice chairman and senior NC leader Mukhtar Ahmad Bandh had ploughed the paddy fields at Dangerpora on Monday as a mark of protest....