Srinagar, March 26, 2018 (PPI-OT): In occupied Kashmir, scores of militants who surrendered during past eight years staged a protest demonstration in Srinagar against the puppet administration for failing to fulfill its promise of rehabilitating them. A former militant, Muhammad Ehsaan from Soura who had returned from Azad Jammu and Kashmir along with his family, hoping that the puppet regime would rehabilitate him, feels dejected and abandoned.
“We are even denied basic facilities. I wanted to apply for a passport and go for holy pilgrimage, but I’m not cleared for travelling,” Ehsaan told local English daily Greater Kashmir during the protest held at Press Enclave in Srinagar. Talking about his tough life he has faced ever since his return, Ehsaan said he has to even seek permission from the authorities for a mere visit to Jammu.
Another former militant, Muhammad Rafi from Handwara said that he had returned (from AJK) eight years ago but the puppet administration had kept none of its promises to help them start their lives. “Our relatives reside in other Kashmir (AJK) but we are not allowed to meet them, neither are our wives allowed to visit their parents and relatives,” he added.
In November 2010, the then puppet regime led by Omar Abdullah had announced the policy for rehabilitation of militants. Under the policy the Wagah, Attari, Salamabad, Chakan-da-Bagh crossings on the Line of Control and the Indira Gandhi International Airport New Delhi were identified as the legal routes for return of the former militants. But the puppet regime has been maintaining that those who have returned had taken the illegal route.
Frustrated by the puppet authorities’ silence over the demands, many families had threatened to return to AJK as the families have been maintaining that they were finding difficult to get admission for their children in government schools in occupied Kashmir. The protesting militants said that they had not been even given state subject.
“We feel like outsiders in our own state. And many of us who are possessing state subjects have been asked to return those. Our children are denied admission in schools due to lack of documents. We feel like caged in an open prison,” said another former militant, Nisar Ahmed Khan, from Pulwama. They demanded of the puppet regime to rehabilitate them as per the promised policy and allow their families to travel freely.
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