Srinagar, Mar 29: Scores of women from Pakistan married to former militants of Kashmir who returned to Kashmir under the state government’s rehabilitation policy staged a protest in Kashmir capital Srinagar on Friday.
The protesting women alleged that the government has done nothing to help their families. Scores of women who came to the Valley along with their husbands who had gone across the border to take weapons training but returned home in response to the rehabilitation policy for former militants announced by the state government under the then Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, gathered at the Press Enclave in Srinagar threatening of agitation if their demands were not met.
“Allow us to return to Pakistan or provide us the needed facilities to settle along with our husbands and children in Kashmir. We have no identity, no ration cards, and Adhaar cards,” said a protester who hails from Rawalpindi and is married in Baramalla.
The protesting women alleged that the state government was not issuing them travel documents to return to Pakistan. “We request government of India to allow us to visit our families back in Pakistan. We are being stopped at Wagha Border and not allowed to proceed towards our homes,” they told CNS.
The fate of dozens of such families hangs in the balance since they have scant means of livelihood and even social acceptability.
They said the promises made by the government in State proved ‘hoax’ as the situation they faced so far was quite contradictory to the claims made the government under rehabilitation policy. “We are finding it difficult to survive in Kashmir now. We want the government of both the countries including India and Pakistan led by Narendra Modi and Imran Khan to take effective steps and facilitate our return to Pakistan,” they said
