Six decades and half have passed by when nearly a million Hindus and Sikhs from the part of the State now under the occupation of Pakistan were forced to flee their homes and hearths and seek shelter in Jammu region when the tribesmen from Pakistan’s Frontier Province commanded by Pakistani army officers led an incursion into the State of the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir in October 1947. Their forced extirpation from their homes happened because of partition of India and creation of a new state of Pakistan. The small and ill equipped handful of troops of the State could not withstand the massive incursion in which thousands of armed tribesmen were involved.
It has to be reminded that millions of people migrated when the Punjab was divided. They found shelter in various states of India and also in the capital city of Delhi. The Central and State Governments took steps for their rehabilitation and with the passage of time these refugees got integrated into Indian society. They are hard working people and through their own efforts and the support from the Government they managed their lives and prospered.
But the refugees from the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) who sought refuge in Jammu were less fortunate. They were faced with many hardships and received almost negligible support from the State Government. The harshest treatment they received was denial of their right to citizenship of the State. The stand taken by the Government of the State in their respect was that they are not originally citizens of the State but from other parts of West Punjab as it was called in those days and as such could not be granted citizenship of the State. The Government brought the onus of proving their statehood to their doorstep. It is simply ironical that people thrown out of homes and hearths under threat of life, escaping bare handed, were asked to produce the proof of they being originally the residents of the State. Thus on this pretext they have been refused to be recognized as the subjects of the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Though the Government of the State was later on compelled to give some of them temporary residential permits but this was no solution to the problem to which they had been exposed. They continued to protest against discriminatory treatment meted out to them and the State Government continued to ignore them.
In more recent days they have been strongly articulating for rights that have been denied to them. They led many delegations to the highest authorities in the country and have been vociferously demanding that they be provided compensation for their rehabilitation in the province of Jammu where they have been living ever since their extirpation. The State Government finally agreed to consider the case of rehabilitating them in Jammu region and to provide them financial support. This kindled hope in the refugees that there was somebody who cared for them and that they would not be discriminated against. The proposal drawn by the Revenue Department is to pay a sum of Rs. 25 lakh in case of each deserving family after verification is made. This file has not moved beyond the Revenue Department and the State Government has taken the stand that it cannot meet the expenditure on account of rehabilitating the refugees from PoJK. It is not forwarding the case to the Union Government even. Thus a stalemate has ensued in which the case of rehabilitating the refugees is left to collect dust.
We would like to emphasize on the State Government that these refugees have suffered a lot of hardships and it is to be harsh to them if the rehabilitation package is put in cold store. This is not the treatment that refugees deserve. The State Government must make its recommendations and forward them to the Central Government for its decision. The game of passing on the buck is what the State Government is indulging in and that will not work.
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