Precious Kashmir News
Kupwara, Dec 4: The Pakistani women married to former Kashmiri militants, who had returned to the Valley under government’s rehabilitation policy in 2010, Friday staged a protest in the premises of District Development Commissioner office in Kupwara district.
Holding placards and raising slogans, the women asked Government of India (GoI) either provide them citizenship rights or deport them back to Pakistan.
“We want justice, provide us travel documents, we appeal both India and Pakistan to think about us,” read the messages on placards.
The women assembled in premises of DC Office Kupwara and raised slogans to attract the attention of authorities.
“We are suffering badly. Please send us back or give us citizenship rights. We appeal both India and Pakistan to think about us. We want to visit our home,” the protesting Pakistani women said.
“Our appeal to the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan is to address our issues sensibly. We are living a miserable life here, and our future seems bleak. Please help us and deport us,” they said.
They said scores of Pakistani women who had arrived in Kashmir along with their former militant husbands through India-Nepal border under the government’s rehabilitation policy in 2010 are treated as “second-class citizens”.
“We are also human beings and want to be treated justly. What is our fault? We were promised something but got another thing. Now our husbands are living peacefully, but we are suffering. We are out of touch with our families and on humanitarian grounds, we should be allowed to go back to Pakistan or be given citizenship rights,” they said.
“My mother died last month and I was unable to participate in her last rites,” said a protesting woman. (KNT)
