Srinagar, May 13 (Scoop News):- CPI (M) State unit expresses serious concern over the plight of youth and their families who returned to their homes in valley from Pakistan Administered Kashmir(PAK) under Return and Rehabilitation policy. The CPI (M) which had mooted a resolution in this regard in the state Legislative Assembly in its 2005 session has taken cognizance of the prevailing circumstances under which these families are living in Kashmir. In this regard, the State Secretary CPI (M) Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami has send a letter to the honourable Chief Minister Mr Omar Abdullah inviting his attention towards this grave issue, which if not addressed in time, can have serious ramifications.
The letter reads, “with deep disappointment, I want to bring in your notice that a Pakistan Administered Kashmir (PAK) woman Saira Bano who had recently accompanied her husband to a Bandipora village under the return and rehabilitation policy on April 14 lost her battle for life. Five days before the death of this young woman, she had set herself ablaze and was under treatment at a hospital in Srinagar. The deceased is survived by her husband and the three small children.
I want to remind your good-self most humbly about your commitment made from time to time like on June 1, 2013 at Delina in Baramulla when you told a gathering that your government’s rehabilitation policy for the youth stuck in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir was aimed at “soothing their wounds and providing them an opportunity to return.” You added, and I quote from the newspapers: “Government in real sense soothed the wounds by delisting the families of militants from the black list and provided them opportunity of return (from PAK under the rehabilitation policy) to those who had not resorted to violence and guns.”
The woes of families returning from PAK under the amnesty policy have sofar remained unheeded. The tragic suicide by Saira, one of beneficiaries of this policy demonstrates this beyond a shadow of doubt. Most of the women who have accompanied their husbands after being married to them in PAK have returned along with their small children. The returnees have repeatedly complained of harassment by security agencies including police, no livelihood and no school admissions for their children. Despite their repeated complaints and media reports highlighting their innumerable problems that they have been virtually pushed to the wall, the government seems not doing enough to fulfill its commitment.
The Return and Rehabilitation Policy of the youth is complex and involves legal niceties but the vision with which this resolution was moved by CPI (M) in the Legislative Assembly in its September-2005 Session and again taken for detailed discussion in 2006-07 Budget Session, seems to have lost its sheen and the same is not yielding any tangible results. Through this letter I want to invite your intervention towards this most sensitive and serious issue so that we don’t create a situation for these returnees and their families wherein we will see more Sairas’ in future.”
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