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| Miserable plight of Jammu- based POJK refugees | | Insensitive Government | | Neha
JAMMU, Sept 21: "The government has failed in redressing their genuine demands pending for the past so many years. The Government's attitude towards their genuine demands and grievances is negative and hostile and it has not done anything to mitigate their hardships, thus compelling them to adopt path of agitation. The displaced people are in trouble and facing hardships, but the Government has no concrete policy for them. 24 seats should be reserved for them…There should be reservation for their children in educational institutions and service sector. The Government should make a policy for the unemployed refugees' children for their adjustment in the Government departments and also confer on them the status of Backward Class. The refugees from Chhamb, Deva, Watala, Manawar, Bhimber, Mirpur, Kotli, Baag, Palandari, Poonch and Muzzafarabad are totally excluded from the 'comprehensive settlement package' by the Government. The hapless people were displaced in 1947, 1965 and 1971 wars and their entire property was gifted by the Government of India to Pakistan under Shimla Agreement in 1972. Thousands of non-camp refugees have been registered till date but after the passage of so many years their problems have not been solved, leading to hardships…Two generations of these hapless refugees have vanished, passing the days in abject poverty and miseries but the State and the Central Government never paid any heed towards their one time settlement, and has just made false and fake promises from time to time…We will continue our protests in a peaceful manner and if our demands are not accepted, we would intensify our agitation".
Who condemned the negative attitude of the authorities towards their neglect and miserable plight and when? Were the charges levelled against the authorities well-founded? Who threatened a full-scale struggle against the authorities? Are they part and parcel of the Indian society? The representatives of the refugees from Pakistan-occupied-Jammu and Kashmir (POJK) condemned in downright language the hostile and discriminatory attitude of the authorities. They did it yesterday, with hundreds of them, including the abandoned women and children, courting arrest and even confronting the police in Gandhi Nagar, Jammu.
The charges levelled by them against the authorities were not only well-founded but also unambiguous and their charge that the Congress government in 1972 bungled by concluding a truce with the aggressor Pakistan at a time when the chivalrous and brave Indian Army had inflicted a humiliating defeat at the Pakistani Army and when over 90,000 Pakistani soldiers, including Army Generals, have laid down arms and surrendered before the victorious Indian Army, was as genuine as it was well-founded. Indeed, the Congress government of the time converted a historical and splendid victory in the battlefield into a humiliating diplomatic defeat with the otherwise deflated and humbled Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto outmaneuvering those handling Pakistan after the end of the 1971 Indo-Pak war.
That was the time to take corrective measures, make optimum use of the God-sent opportunity or the opportunity created by the Indian war machine and reoccupy all the territories Pakistan had illegally occupied in 1947-1948 after rape, murder and pillage and rehabilitate the POJK refugees, number approximately .7 million, in their original habitat but the Congress government headed by Indira Gandhi squandered the opportunity under pressure from the United States and other countries and for vote-bank politics. Had the Congress government acted wisely and employed its diplomatic skills, it would have re-occupied the occupied areas and solved the then over 24-year-problem of the POJK refugees. The charge of the POJK refugees against the authorities needs to be viewed in this context.
As for the demands of the POJK refugees, who have been leading a wretched life in Jammu and elsewhere in the Jammu province since 1947 when they quit their homes and hearths to escape their humiliation and physical liquidation at the hands of the fanatics and votaries of two-nation theory and save their culture and religion, they are genuine that should have been redressed decades ago, as they deserved compassion and special attention. It was a human issue. It is a sad reflection on the part of the authorities in the state and at the Centre that they made the life of these refugees and other refugees in Jammu province a veritable hell on earth just because they were non-Muslims and just because the state government consistently put its foot down for reasons not really difficult to fathom.
There is no doubt whatever that had these refugees been the followers of a particular religion, the authorities in the state and at the Centre would have opened the public exchequer for them and accorded to them a very, very special treatment as they have been doing in Kashmir for the Pakistani-trained anti-India elements of Kashmir origin. It appears it is a sin to be a non-Kashmiri Muslim in this state. How else should one describe the negative attitude of the powers-that-be in the state and at the Centre?
It is time for the callous, insensitive, and even vindictive authorities to take cognizance of the demands as put forth by the refugees from POJK, refugees from West Pakistan and border migrants so that they lead a dignified life as part and parcel of the Indian society. The refugees have also to retrospect and ponder over the negative role being played by certain elements in their own community to defeat them and their cause. These elements are easily identifiable.
Hundreds of PoK Displaced people today staged a protest demonstration and offered their court arrest at Gandhi Nagar Police Station to protest against the Carrying placards and banners in their hands, protesting PoK displaced people gathered at Gole Market, Gandhi Nagar, and raised anti Government slogans. The protesting people in the shape of rally moved towards Gandhi Nagar Police Station and offered their arrests. The protestors included a sizeable number of men, women and children.
However, police raised barricade and closed down the main gate of the Gandhi Nagar police station as a precautionary measure to prevent the protesting people from entering the police station. Minor scuffle took place between PoK displaced people and the Police.
As the police resisted the protesting people from entering into the police station, the protesting Pok displaced people sat on road outside the police station and protested in a peaceful manner. They raised anti Government slogans for their callous attitude towards redressal to their demands.
After negotiations with police, hundreds of PoK displaced people offered court arrest and were later released in the evening.
Addressing the gathering, Capt Yudh Veer Singh, President, PoK Refugee Front said that Singh further added that He said Chib said that. |
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