Srinagar: Dozens of members of Jammu and Kashmir Pahari Cultural and Welfare Form (JKPCWF) on Sunday staged a protest in Srinagar demanding Schedule Tribe (ST) status for the community.
Dozens of the Paharai community members, who came from Uri and Karnah in North Kashmir, assembled at Press Enclave on Residency Road holding banners and placards, shouting slogans in favour of their demand.
Spokesman of the JKPCWF Syed Rafiq Shah, who was leading the protesters alleged that the community has been neglected since 1947 despite repeated efforts seeking the Schedule Tribe (ST) status for the community”, he told media persons, “the central government should fulfill our demand which they had promised time and again”.
“We appeal to Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, that with the “Sab Ka Saath, Sab Ka Vikas”, the Pahari tribe be taken along and provided with their constitutional right of ST status”, Shah said.
He alleged that the identity of the community has been diluted since the 1947. “We demand our constitutional right”, Shah added. (UNI)
