J&K : A STATE OF DENIAL

PoK refugee feel cheated & deprived of Human Rights in their home state

Vijay Kranti

 Vijay Kranti

Time is a great healer. But wounds left unattended, ignored and exposed can lead to unending pain and agony. The case of over two million refugees from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) residing in and outside Jammu & Kashmir is a sad, but perfect example. Despite being a part of the 12.5 million refugees who crossed over from other parts of undivided India during Partition in 1947, they are still waiting to get their due identity and be treated as equal children of their home state.

As this community completes its 64 years of uprooting from their home towns of Mirpur, Muzaffarabad, Kotli, Bhimbar and Dev Batala etc. of POK on 25th November this week, its members have yet to be accepted even as 'refugees' by either of their two host governments, the Central government in New Delhi or the State government of J&K. They feel cheated more for the reason that despite Indian and J&K governments' failure to depute police or Army to take possession of their respective towns,  it was this community who kept India's flag high for over three months after independence in their respective towns in POK till the last week of November. In this most unfortunate chapter of India-Pakistan partition, this community witnessed a dreaded holocaust which left more than 50 thousand Indian citizens killed at the hands of invading Pakistan Police raiders and their tribal allies. That too at a time when the heat of post-partition violence had long cooled down in the rest of country and the Indian government was in full control of the nation.

Quite a few of them were forcibly pushed out to adjoining Punjab by the Sheikh Abdullah's government for the fear that these migrants would 'dilute Kashmiriyat' in the State. Many among this community of 'POK Migrants' have melted away on their own to other parts of India in search of better future. Some others have been able to develop fresh roots on their own in the Jammu region of the state. However, a few hundred thousand are still cursed to live sub-human life and are languishing in 39 shanty refugee settlements of 1947 era in Jammu and surrounding areas.

However, all three sections of this community are facing a perpetual denial of facilities and compensation that they should have received as 'refugees'. The main logic extended by the State government to justify denial of 'refugee' status to POK migrants is that since Government of India considers POK as an 'integral part of India' hence these migrants from POK cannot be treated as 'refugees' of country's Partition. Further, referring to their 'non refugee' status the State government has adopted a policy of denying them any compensation in settlement of claims for their properties they left behind in their home towns and villages of POK in 1947. Interestingly, the Central government too has kept the POK migrant communities out of the purview of 1954 Rehabilitation Board that was assigned to provide cash compensation for the assets which 8 million refugees from West and East Pakistan on the ground that it will dilute India's claim over POK.

In 1966 when the World Bank sponsored Mangla Dam was constructed by Pakistan in Mirpur in POK, the Mirpuri refugees in India were not allowed by the State government of J&K to collect cash compensation for their properties, submerged in the dam, which the Bank provided to all land and house owners of the dam area.

Interestingly, the State Government of J&K passed the 'Resettlement Act 1982' which gives legal rights to the Kashmiris, who had migrated to Pakistan in 1947, to return to J&K and claim their original properties and to settle in the State. This has obviously irked the POK migrants. "The State government has all the heart for those Kashmiris who opted for Pakistan in 1947. It has even expressed desire to offer jobs and rehabilitation to pro-Pakistan Kashmiri terrorists who sneaked into Pakistan to take anti-India arms training in terror camps. But it has no word of sympathy for the Hindu and Sikh refugees from POK," complains Mr. Rajiv Chunni, Chairman of SOS International, an organization campaigning for human and civil rights of POK migrant communities.

Knowing the ground situation in J&K, a large majority of POK migrants who shifted further to other parts of India, have practically lost their status as the 'State Subjects' of J&K. This section of the community sees feeble chances of returning to their home state some day in future. In the absence of 'State Subject' status they do not even qualify for elementary citizen rights like buying property, taking up state government jobs or voting for the State Assembly, municipalities or even a village Panchayat.

Such acts have only added credibility to POK refugees' allegations of communal bias against the State government and hence further deepened the communal divide in J&K. The State government's decision to keep 24 Assembly seats permanently vacant for POK until its 'liberation' is seen by people in Jammu and Ladakh as a ploy of Kashmiri leadership to permanently hijack the State machinery.

No wonder the Forum of Migrant POK Communities, a joint platform of POK refugees living outside J&K, recently called upon the Central Government's Interlocutors on J&K to advise the government to fill up these seats with representatives from the POK migrants living in J&K and outside. "It is an unfortunate fact that anti-India bills like the 'Resettlement Act-1982' can be easily passed by the J&K Assembly on any day purely on the strength of a 'manipulated Kashmiri majority' in the Assembly", says the Forum's letter to the interlocutors.

The Forum has also advised the Central government to create a National Register of all the POK migrants. "This Register should record all information about the refugees, their descendents, the properties which they or their families left behind in POK and their present status. It will help the Indian government to present its case on POK at a proper time in the history," says Dr. Sudesh Ratan Mahajan, a Convenor of the Forum.

Besides creating a hopeless environment for these refugee communities from POK, this approach of the State government does not present a reasonable image of the State's Kashmiri leadership who are used to falling over one another to demand more and more concessions for themselves and Kashmir from the rest of India.

At the national level too, this unfortunate attitude of the only Muslim majority state of India towards its Hindu and Sikh minority subjects does not present a good example in favour of the Muslim community in the rest of India.

(Author is a senior journalist and a member of POK migrant community)