Srinagar, July 13 -- With every change in law, policy, or political climate, a new crop of manipulators has found ways to profit.

Kashmir's legal frameworks for land are detailed, often stringent, and historically meant to protect indigenous ownership.

But these very laws have also been weaponized, twisted through gaps in enforcement and hidden under layers of misplaced trust.

At the heart of the crisis is a well-oiled tactic: selling the same piece of land to multiple buyers.

It sounds too obvious, too clumsy, to be real. And yet it happens again and again, particularly in cases where non-resident Kashmiris aren't physically present to oversee deals.

Documents are forged. Boundaries are blurred. And once the money is paid, the buyer...