Srinagar Govt’s sham rehab policy holds family’s future to ransom

Srinagar: Qulsum Ashraf aspires to become a banker. Her future looks anything but secure. Qulsum literally means pride and summit, the 17-year-old lives the life of a destitute whose future is caught between a troubled policy and even more troublesome politics.
Eight months back when her father, Muhammad Ashraf Mir Gilkar decided to return to this part of Kashmir, she was the first to resent the move. Her brother, Riyaz Ashraf, who is studying in class 10, seconded her views. But her father was adamant to return to his native land, which he had left in early 90s for arms training.
During his training days, Mir decided not to return to the valley.
“I was not happy the things were shaping in Kashmir so I decided not to take part in armed struggle,” said Mir, who crossed to Pakistan-administered Kashmir with a group of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, the militant group which announced unilateral ceasefire in 1995 and is now split into three factions.
“I decided to start a new life in Muzaffarabad,” says Mir.
Eight months in Kashmir, Mir realizes he has made a Himalayan blunder by trusting the assurances made in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly in 2010.
During the initial days of his stay in Pakistan, he says he did whatever job he could find, but after securing status of a Kashmiri refugee, he took up driving as a profession.
His Pakistani license now stands cancelled and his application form for a local one has also been rejected.
In 1993, Mir married Shabnum, a resident of Muzaffarabad. She was studying in her secondary school, but obeyed her family decision.
For them Mir was a Kashmiri migrant who needed a family to care. Two years after they married, Qulsum was born.
She grew as a bright student with a singleminded goal: Get a degree in finance and work for a major international bank.
“I want to be a banker, but now I can’t see where my future is going. It’s dark and bleak.”
After returning to Kashmir through the illegal route via Nepal along with father, mother and three siblings, she could not appear for her higher secondary exams in Muzaffarabad, which were due in March.
It took her father months of persuasion before she managed an admission in Nawakadal Higher Secondary School. Just few months into her final examinations, more trouble came knocking her door. Board of School Examination is hesitant to allow her sit in annual examination as she still doesn’t have a State subject.
Mir family’s trouble stems from the “failure” of the rehabilitation policy.
According to Mir, he had to pay bribes to get Pakistani passport made in PaK. But after going to Indian consulate in Rawalpindi, they refused to issue him a visa.
The consulate officials told him to take his family to Nepal and from there the Indian agents will guide him to Kashmir.
Heeding to the suggestion, Mir sold some part of his wife’s jewelry to buy tickets for Nepal.
As the family landed at Kathmandu airport, a Kashmiri offered help and asked them to follow him. They did exactly what he told them even paying a hefty amount. He dropped them at Gorakpur border in Uttar Pradesh.
As they reached Srinagar Tourist Reception Centre, they found a police contingent in civvies waiting for them.
After initial investigation, the family was allowed go with Mir’s elder brother, but he was detained. He managed a bail only after a week from the local court.
“For the first few days our relatives and neighbors treated us well, but we were soon aliens in own land and nobody was ready to own us,” says Qulsum whose disappointment reflects in the change she has undergone in past few months.
“On Eid, I used to have lots of fun, but on my first Eid in Kashmir, I stayed in this room, which we call house and mourned my future.”
Qulsum claims that on her arrival in India her Pakistani passport was confiscated and burnt down.
Meanwhile, District Commissioner, Srinagar, Baseer Ahmad Khan said his office has not received any such application.
“If this is true they should meet me and we will look into the matter,” Khan said.
“Such cases have to be looked on individual basis.”
Mir says he tried to get a driving license, but Regional Transport Office has refused to give him one citing his militant past.
“My children are here called as Pakistanis. I am a social outcast in my own country.”
To secure the admission of her younger daughter in a private school, his wife, Shabana sold her gold ring.
“He is not working and we have to live independently as his brother asked him to manage on his own. We have nothing to eat,” says Shabana, who has bachelors degree in Arts from University of Muzaffarabad.
“Every day I feel that our decision to come here has turned us into beggars. We are no one here. We have no identity or a future."
The draft rehabilitation policy devised by Jammu and Kashmir government spoke about easy loans, technical build and reintegration of families into Kashmiri society once they return.
However, the policy turned out to be a farce for around 200 families which have returned since 2010.
On the contrary, in Pakistan, such families received a monthly stipend of Rs 2000 from the government and also indirect support of over Rs 50000 from various NGOs working in Pakistan for Kashmiri migrants. Such allowances are offered to around 40,000 Kashmiri migrants who crossed to the other side of the border in 1989 – enough money to lead a comfortable life.
“If they can’t do anything about our future, they should handover us to Red Cross. If the organization sends us to Africa or anywhere, we won’t mind. We feel like aliens in Kashmir,” says Shubnum.
Around 175 families, who migrated to Pakistan and returned since 2010, have now formed a forum seeking justice and right to normal life in valley.
Many Kashmiri boys who crossed Line of Control in early 90s did not join militant groups and stayed in Pakistan. Most of them married local girls and started families there. In 2010 when the Omar Abdullah government announced Rehabilitation Policy for Kashmiris who wish to return from Pakistan, many of these families responded to his assurances.
Minister for State Home, Nasir Aslam Wani said at this moment government is not able to solve the issue of these people in groups, but it will look into the cases individually.
“We will look into their grievances on person to person basis,” Wani said.
The main opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party blames Omar for the sufferings of returnee families.
“Whatever Omar says it doesn’t get registered, perhaps not even in his own mind, not to speak about officials,” said chief spokesperson of PDP, Nayeem Akthar.
“He loves to read his own announcements in newspapers, takes pleasure out of it and forgets about people,” he said.
Qulsum’s plea- “either give me my rights or send me back”- sums up her dejection and desperation.