Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 23: Movement for Justice for Refugees of 1947 from PoK (MJR-47) in a memorial function held near MA Stadium today, paid respectful homage to all those who laid down their lives in the Tribal raid of 1947 on the State.
Dy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh was the chief guest at the function who assured the community that BJP was committed for minimizing sufferings of the PoJK refugees and provide them financial package as promised. He said that the Party is also serious about the other demands of the refugees which include reservation to the wards of refugees in professional institutions and jobs. He declared that financial package was under process and will be announced very shortly.
BJP MLC, S Charanjit Singh who is also founder member of MJR-47 and another BJP leader Narinder Singh (State gen secy) were honoured on the occasion.
It was on October 22, 1947 that Pakistani Army, under the guise of tribal raid attacked the State with the aim to annex J&K state. The small fighting force of the then Maharaja Hari Singh and the general public got killed. Many children became orphans, women became widows and many were captured and burnt alive and those who escaped managed to reach Poonch, Srinagar and Jammu areas. They left behind their everything and reached penny less.
J S Sudan, convener of the organization while paying tributes to the martyrs red the future agenda of the MJR-47 and said that body would continue its struggle for the common cause of this community. He said MJR-47 has been observing this day as Martyrs’ Day, praying for the peace of the departed souls and remind the younger generations of the supreme sacrifice given by their elders. He said more than 40,000 men, women and children were massacred in the genocide. He claimed that MJR-47 has documented and names and identity of more than 3000 people martyred in the tribal raid and is further collecting all the data/ record of all the people martyred.
The members of MJR-47 from Punjab, Chandigarh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Haryana came specially to participate in this programme.
On this occasion while paying tributes to martyrs, all the members present resolved to carry on their struggle for seeking justice for the displaced persons/ refugees.
Chief spokesman, Suchwant Singh conducted the programme while Dr Padam Dev Raina, OP Khajuria, Raj Kumar Baotra, BR Sharma, Manjit Singh, Jaswant Singh, Jagbir Singh, Harjit Singh and others also spoke.
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