Pakistani wives of Occupied Kashmir youth demand travel documents from Indian government to return back to AJK

*SRINAGAR, MAY 04 (PTK):* The Pakistani wives of Kashmiri former militantswho had returned from Pakistan-administered-Kashmir under a rehabilitationprogramme on Saturday demanded that the state government provide themtravel documents so that they are able to return to their families acrossthe Line of Control.

Addressing a press conference in Kashmir Press Club at Polo View inSrinagar, they said that they had come with their husbands to Kashmir afterthe Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah announced rehabilitationprogramme for surrendered militants in 2010.

“We are nearly 350 women who have come to Kashmir under rehabilitationpolicy of the state government, through Nepal border,” they told the mediapersons during the presser.

They said that the promises made by the state government with them have notbeen fulfilled. “We ask the state government to provide us travel documentsand citizenship rights so that we are able to meet our families andrelatives in Pakistan”, they said.

The policy was meant for those men, who crossed over toPakistan-administered Kashmir between Jan. 1989 and Dec. 2009 for armstraining but later laid down arms and were willing to return to India.

However, nearly a decade later, the policy has left the Pakistani wives andchildren of these former militants craving for a place they could call home.

“We are even denied basic documents like identity cards, ration cards,”Shabana, in her 30s, married to ex militant Ashraf Mir said.

According to police data, 377 former militants, who married in PakistaniKashmir have returned to Kashmir along with 864 family members since 2010when the rehabilitation policy was announced.

All of them are struggling to access their basic citizenship rights,including identity proof, without which they are unable to admit theirchildren to schools.

Frustrated and angry over their predicament and the future of theirchildren, scores of wives of former militants staged a demonstration inSrinagar, the main city of Indian Kashmir, demanding they be either sentback to Pakistan, or allowed a life of dignity.

The women appealed Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, Foreign MinisterSushma Swaraj, and J&K Governor Satya Paul Malik to look into the matterand address their concerns. (PTK)