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| PDP faces refugees’ ire | | Mehbooba’s rally stormed, over dozen injured | |
ET REPORTERS
Jammu, June 16: Over a dozen protestors were injured in Police baton charge as the Peoples Democratic Party today had to face the ire of West Pakistan refugees for opposing their settlement rights in Jammu and Kashmir.
The PDP along with National Conference had vehemently opposed the conferment of property rights upon West Pakistan refugees who have been running from pillar to post for over five decades.
To give vent to their ire, the refugees led by Shiv Sena leader Annan Sharma stormed into a rally being addressed by the PDP president Mehbooba Mufti at Jhiri, around 20 kilometres from here. This warranted the Police action and following this over a dozen activists were injured while their leader Sharma was taken into preventive custody.
"We have taken some of Shiv Sena activists into preventive custody," a police official on the spot said.
The agitated mob accused PDP of stonewalling rehabilitation of refugees who migrated to Jammu from Pakistan after the partition of the sub-continent in 1947.
The PDP, at an all-party meeting in Srinagar last month, had objected to Congress's plan of granting citizenship rights to the refugees. Along with Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and other regional parties including National Conference, the PDP - a key partner in Kashmir's ruling coalition - said this would threaten the demographic structure of the state.
Undeterred by the protests and short disruption, Mehbooba Mufti addressed the rally and asked the refugees to question the Congress over their plight.
"The Congress is ruling both at the centre and in the state. Why refugees are not being rehabilitated is a question that should be directed toward the Congress, not us," she said, adding: "We are a regional party. We don't have much say in such matters."
More than 50,000 people who had migrated to Jammu six decades ago live here without citizenship rights. The refugees have the right to vote in the parliamentary elections but not in assembly elections as they are considered as citizens of India but not of Kashmir.
They are not entitled to own property in the state because Article 370 of the Indian constitution grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir by virtue of which only the natives of the state are entitled to citizenship rights.
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