While the issue of deciding the future of 1947 partition refugees from West Pakistan continues to hang fire, another issue of almost the same nature has cropped up which the Union Home Ministry would like to resolve. The issue of handling the border migrants in three border districts of Kathua, Samba and Jammu that have become the frequent target of Pakistan’s unprovoked firing and shelling demands immediate attention of the authorities. Last year from August to October, there have been hundreds of violations of the cease fire agreement of 2003 and as many as 19 persons including two security personnel have been killed in the firing. The problem that has cropped up is of thousands of civilians who are forced to leave their homes close to the border owing to enemy firing and seek shelter at safer places have to be taken care of.
There have been more than 560 violations of the truce agreement so far. Despite repeatedly inviting the attention of Pakistani Rangers to the commitments of cease fire, there is no relent in hostile activities of Pakistani Rangers. Now, we have to accept that unprovoked firing and shelling has become a regular feature of border situation and we shall have to prepare ourselves accordingly. In recent shelling it was found that Pakistani Rangers had fired heavy mortar that could strike up a distance of five kilometers. They are leaving no stone unturned to scare the civilian population away from the border so that it becomes easy for their infiltrators to sneak in without detection. Actually, they have succeeded in this mission because the Union Home Ministry has finally decided to write to the State Government for identifying the number of families living close to the border who are forced to shift when Pakistan firing takes place. The MHA has also asked the State Government to identify the land in the aforementioned three districts for allotment of 5 marla plot to each border migrant family for safe rehabilitation. In fact the Revenue Department is already at work of identifying the land.
The plan of the MHA is that families living within 3-4 kilometers of the border and in a radius of 5 kilometers from the IB, in the three districts would be identified for the rehabilitation scheme. The MHA will bear the cost of land. Additionally, the ministry also plans to build concrete bunkers close to the border so that in times of emergency when Pakistani troops open unprovoked firing, the civilian population can take shelter in them. It will be reminded that the scheme was originally conceptualized by the UPA Government but was never translated into practice.
The decision has many angles to be noted. Practically speaking, it is desirable that human lives are given protection and the Government has the responsibility of providing safety to life which is the foremost of all human rights. In that sense the families who have to shift so often will be provided assured shelter, But the question is that how long we shall remain on defensive as far as breaking peace on the border is concerned. Pakistan has succeeded in her designs of scaring away the population close to border on our side in order to make it safe and easy for infiltrators to sneak into our side. Perhaps we should devise a more effective and long range solution to this problem. Why should not concrete bunkers be made in large numbers along the vulnerable sites on the LoC and the IB which can be used by the civilian population in times of need? Close liaison between the border dwellers and the army has to be established especially when tension is high on the border. It means that there has to be close rapport between the army intelligence agencies and the local civilian population. Creating a four kilometer wide strip in three districts cannot remain a temporary arrangement. A day will come when nobody from among the civilian population would want to return to their original places and resettle there.
Actually we should have thought of encouraging people to construct houses close to the border to give an impression to the Pakistani side that we will not be cowed down by their intransigent firing and shelling. But this could happen only when we have foolproof security system in place along the LoC and IB. We do not hear that Pakistan is also vacating the civilian population to safer places on their side.
Now that the MHA has taken a decision, let it go ahead. But we would suggest that it should be made clear to the border migrant families that they will return to their original habitats close to the border once conditions become normal and Pakistan makes a firm commitment that it would not resort to unprovoked firing in future but would resolve any dispute or differences with Indian side through negotiations and bilateral dialogue.
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