Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 4: The Gujjars, residing in the border areas of the State, have demanded from the Government to help them relocate at safer places in the wake of heavy firing on Line of Control and International Border.
The Gujjar community which mainly lives near LoC and International Border, whose livelihood depends on livestock, also wants the Government to help shift their animals along with them.
This demand was made in a programme organised by Tribal Research and Cultural Foundation held under the chairmanship of veteran scholar Dr Javaid Rahi, who while addressing stated that “Every year dozens of Gujjars and their livestock get killed near the border, hundreds are injured and thousands of people migrate to safer places during the firing.”
Speaking on the occasion he said that “Gujjars and Bakerwals, who reside along the Indo-Pak border, become the first victims of cross-border firing.
Following the heavy arms firing on border areas of Line of Control going in last few weeks, people living within 10 kms of the border with Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab were asked to shift to safer places.
These directions were passed on to people living along LoC and IB in Rajouri, Poonch, Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts.
The speakers have appealed the Home Minister Rajnath Singh, State Governor N N Vohra and Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to give directives to local authorities to provide shelter, food and other facilities to the Gujjars and to arrange fodder for their livestock.
The speakers said the Gujjars and Bakerwals are the main tribal group of Jammu Kashmir and constitute 20 percent of total population of the State who occupy frontier areas along the border from Poonch to Lakhanpur and Uri Karnah to Gurez and Kargil. “During last one year, around 10 members of the tribal Gujjars community have been killed and hundreds others injured in the shelling and firing along the LoC and IB in Jammu and Poonch districts, triggering migration of hundreds of tribal families from the border hamlets,” they claimed.
The speakers included Hashim Ali Chowdahry, Ch Wali Mohd, Khadam Hussain, Rana Mir Mohd Gujjar, Mohd Rizwan and others.
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