Over 50,000 families of 1947 plus 1965/71 POJK DPs must have grown to 1,75,000 families by 2023

22 Feb.1994 India Parliament Demand that ‘Pakistan must vacate POJK’ is unexecuted even after 29 Yrs
Iron is Hot – PAK is weak – UNSC has failed to get POJK vacated – time for NDA-III to strike for POJK
Since not paid Claims for Properties Displaced POJK DPs 1947 request for getting vacated POJK areas
POJK DPs ask how long they will have to wait for their return to “parental” hearths in POJK?

Daya Sagar

How long POJK Displaced persons can wait for vacation of POJK areas and live with hopes that one day they would instead be paid amount equivalent to their property claim value. Three generations, may be 4 in some case , have been helplessly waiting for claims of their properties as left behind or vacation of the areas occupied by Pakistan. May be at today’s scales even on an average atleast Rs. 50 lakh/ family if paid as adhoc grant in aid for properties lost and another around Rs. 25 lakh to compensate for delayed payments / attention would have been of some justice but the helpless families displaced from the areas of Indian state of J&K have been forced by circumstances to accept just Rs 5.5 lakh only and that too as one time settlement where there may have been in some cases even 4 to 5 share holder families at present scale. Their agonies have no end evening after waiting for more than 7 decades for their return to their ancestral hearths since many of them are still living in temporary allotments / evacuee properties with fear of uncertainty hanging over their head.
Going by even a likely number of 1947 times families was 41000 or more ( although no regular registration has been got done by State or central Government ), the number of such displaced persons may be in 2023 around 150000 families or minimum 7 to 8 Lac souls. Ofcourse there has been officially quoted around 10065 or so families of 1965/71 times which too would have grown to around 25000 families by 2023 making total POJK Dos family units around 175000 in 2023.
India and Pakistan have fought three more wars after 1947/48 ( 4th April1965- 23 Sept 1965; 3 December to 16 December 1971; 26 May 1999 to 26 July 1999). Not only that as also disclosed in written reply to Q-32 in Lok Sabha on 12th Dec 2018 by GOI , under the so-called ‘Boundary Agreement’ signed between China and Pakistan on 2 March 1963, Pakistan has even illegally ceded 5,180 sq. kms of Indian territory in Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir to China. After 1965 war India had even returned captured Haji Peer to Pakistan. Not only that even after 1971 India has ceded some more area to Pakistan (Chamb Niabat of Jammu District to Pakistan) and as per official quotes 10065 more families had to move out of Pakistan occupied areas. { All most all people from about 12 to 14 villages of Chamb Distt Jammu ( J&K) were uprooted in 1965 from Chamb and people of all the villages of Chamb (about 46 to 48villages of Chamb ) were in a way asked by GOI to vacate their homes / lands in 1972 after Shimla agreement was signed by India with Pakistan after 1971 Indio Pak war. As per rough estimates and information that has been emerging from Government sources nearly 6500 to 7000 families were uprooted / affected in 1971/1972. Of these ( 1971 War ) around 4600 families comprising of nearly 19000 souls were accommodated in relief camps and nearly 1600 to 2000 families were treated as Non Camp DPs 1971 The affected people say that numbers are much more }.
It was on 22nd February 1994 that Parliament had in a way in the style of something like facts & reasons reiterated that the State of Jammu & Kashmir has been, is and shall be an integral part of India and any attempts to separate it from the rest of the country will be resisted by all necessary means ( of course otherwise also required in terms of Art-1 of Constitution of India and Section-3 of Jammu & Kashmir Constitution ) and as a resolve it had been demanded that Pakistan must vacate the areas of the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir, which they have occupied through aggression. Government of India had to get the operative part of the resolution (“Pakistan must vacate the areas of the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir, which they have occupied through aggression”) executed and that part of the resolution too has so far remained un executed at the level of GOI even after nearly 3 decades of 1994 . I do not find any where even after 22nd Feb 1994 where GOI at any level have pointedly asked Pakistan with force to vacate occupied areas by a particular date so that the people displaced from Pakistan Occupied areas of the erstwhile” Princely state of J&K” can go back to their ‘hearths’.
THE POJK 1947 DPs have been waiting for their return to their ancestral ‘hearths’ for over 76 yrs.
It was on 12 December 2018 that GOI was pointedly asked to reply on the floor of Lok Sabha by Dr. Kirit Somaiya MP (a) whether the Government has asked Pakistan at diplomatic level to vacate all illegally occupied areas of Kashmir;(b) if so, the details thereof but the reply as could be read from the contents of the reply given by GOI had not been that speaking as was demanded.

To be Continued

(The writer is a Sr Journalist & analyst of J&K Affairs. [email protected]).