Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 2: Bali Bhagat, senior BJP leader and former Minister has raised serious concern over the last more than seven decades of suffering endured by innocent Hindu-Sikh families of 1947 Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir displaced persons (PoJK DPs) who were uprooted from their homes in 1947.
In a statement issued here, today, the former Minister asserted that it is time to reclaim the territories illegally occupied by Pakistan in 1947 along with the ancestral properties of displaced Hindus and Sikhs.
The senior BJP leader, while recalling history, said that it is known to one and all that the Pakistani Army’s direct intrusion into Indian territories, which began on October 22, 1947, resulted in the unprecedented forced relocation of the innocent Hindu and Sikh inhabitants from Mirpur, Muzaffarabad, Bagh, Sadhnoti, Poonch, Gilgit and Baltistan, etc areas of the erstwhile Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir as the then State Controlling agency was unable to deal with the situation. “The well-trained Pakistani Army broke into the homes of the innocents and began murdering defenceless Hindu and Sikh residents. Even little toddlers and women’s folk were not spared by the Pakistani forces brutality. They were forced to flee, leaving behind everything they had. Mothers and sisters resorted to self-immolating, social burial, suicides by jumping into rivers to avert their falling into the hands of Pak demons,” he added.
Bali Bhagat said that all those including women and children who laid down their lives during the aforesaid displacement to save their lives and honour are the unnamed martyrs and we all pay homage to them and their bravery and sacrifices will continue to be remembered in all times to come.
Bali Bhagat said that these displaced people have endured a terrible and arduous life. He said that the horrifying tales narrated by the elders not only bolster the morale of younger generations, but also serve as a reminder to fight until the last breath to reclaim those territories including their ancestral properties that still continue to be under Pakistan’s illegitimate occupation.
The senior BJP leader said that it is a fact that during the displacement and aftermath, the administration of the former State of Jammu and Kashmir failed to address the woes of the victims.
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