PoK women demand right to travel across LoC

Days after the J&K administration disallowed women from the PoK to meet visiting international envoys, they held a protest march in Srinagar on Tuesday demanding travel paperwork to meet their family across the Line of Control (LoC).

Dozens of women assembled on the Press Enclave and marched up to Ghanta Ghar in Srinagar and demanded citizenship and the right to travel across the LoC.

“We have not committed any crime by marrying a Kashmiri [in PoK during their stay]. These Kashmiris are citizens of India. We are just demanding equal rights,” Saira, one of many protesters, mentioned.

Most of the women, a lot of whom are divorcees now, aren’t allowed to return to PoK.

“The government should deport us if it does not accept us. We just demand travel documents so that we can visit our homes,” mentioned one other bride from PoK.

“Adnan Sami [from Pakistan] was granted citizenship. Sania Mirza [from India] is married to a Pakistani cricketer and is a Pakistani national. But she continues to represent India. Unfortunately, we are being treated like terrorists,” she mentioned.

They mentioned a lot of their family have died since they got here to Kashmir however weren’t allowed “to participate in their funerals”.

Toiba, one other protester, mentioned they’ve been left with none id. “We have no ration cards, no schools to admit our children.”

According to the official figures, round 150 brides from PoK moved to Kashmir together with ex-militant husbands after the rollout of the 2010 rehabilitation coverage. Official figures counsel that round 212 individuals returned by way of Nepal and different routes between 2010 and 2012, towards 219 circumstances authorized after safety clearance.

A J&K High Court judgment, issued in 1971 within the Mohsin Shah case, had noticed that no deportation train might happen for such {couples} as a result of “one person had merely travelled from one part of India to another”.