Bagh: Refugees of 1989 express regret over the exploitative attitude of the government of AJK regarding their demand of resettlement, implementation of 6% quota, state domicile, ownership rights and allocation of 2 seats in the Legislative Assembly.
According to details, a high level meeting of the central leadership of Refugees 1989 was held in Mirpur, Kotli, Bagh, Muzaffarabad and various other cities. They stated that base camp government should clarify its plan of action regarding Kashmir Freedom Movement.
The meeting was attended by presidents, elected councillors, representatives and other important leaders of various refugee settlements established across Azad Kashmir.
The chief guest of the meeting was Ameer “Refugees Jammu and Kashmir 1989” Uzair Ahmed Ghazali while the patron of Refugees Ittehad Forum Bagh Chaudhry Abdul Wahid presided over the meeting.
While addressing, speakers said that the government of Azad Kashmir should refrain from the exploitative behavior as Kashmiri refugees have suffered a lot due to the carelessness and inattention of the current and past base camp governments.
They said that 8500 Kashmiri families who sacrificed their lives for Kashmir freedom movement are forced to live a life of poverty.
They were of the view that Azad Kashmir government established in the name of Kashmir freedom movement has completely ignored the annual budget for the heirs of Kashmiri refugees and martyrs, and has proved that the government of the base camp is actually not interested for the welfare of Refugees.
“Despite the passage of 35 years, these Kashmiri families, whose total population consists of more than 45,000 people, have neither own a plot of land nor a roof to hide their heads in their own state”, they lamented.
Speakers said that it is pity that the base camp government makes loud claims regarding the Kashmir freedom movement, but the fact is that the refugees who sacrificed everything for this movement have been practically left helpless.
Refugees’ leaders said that the educated youth are unemployed due to non-implementation of the 6% quota allotted in government jobs.
They said that despite the passage of three and a half decades, the domicile of the independent state is not being issued to the refugees who migrated from Srinagar, Kupwara, Baramulla, Poonch, Rajouri and other districts of the occupied state.
Speakers said that it is the worst negligence of the government that the refugees are not getting ownership rights in such settlements of Kashmir where they have been living since long.
They said that they have been demanding 2 seats for refugees in the legislative assembly for the last 10 years, but the government is not giving the right of representation to refugees to prove that they are 3rd class citizens.
Refugees Kashmir of 1989 has passed a unanimous resolution in the meeting demanding the government of Azad Kashmir to take the right direction for resettlement as per Charter of Demand.
They reiterated their demands for immediate approval of demands such as property rights, allocation of 2 seats for refugees in the Legislative Assembly, consideration of two-person husband and wife as a family and issuance of migrant cards.
The resolution called for a referendum to be held by the United Nations for a fair and lasting solution to the Kashmir issue.
The resolution described the Indian military occupation of Occupied Kashmir as an intolerable situation.
The actions of the Lok Sabha have been completely rejected as an imperialist attack and the decision of the Indian Supreme Court regarding Jammu and Kashmir on December 11, 2023 as a biased and political decision.
In the resolution, tributes have been paid to the Kashmiri people for their eternal struggle for freedom and to the martyrs who sacrificed their lives in the struggle for national freedom.
The speakers further said that the refugees have migrated in the struggle for freedom and self-determination of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, despite the worst oppression of the situation, the refugees are still standing in the forefront for the freedom movement.
They said that Indian conspiracies and tactics cannot make the Kashmiri people withdraw from their demand for freedom.
They also rejected the worst violations of human rights in Occupied Kashmir and demanded the human rights organizations to take notice of the actions of Indian coercion in the occupied state.
Kashmiri refugee leaders have demanded the human rights organizations to play role in releasing the libertarian leaders and workers imprisoned in Indian jails.
They also condemned the worst attacks by Israel on Palestine, Gaza and Rafah, and demanded the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Gohar Ahmed Kashmiri, Irshad Ahmed Butt Muhammad Latif Lone, Muhammad Shafu Kashmiri, Ch. Muhammad Altaf, Mirza Riaz Jarral, Ch. Muhammad Mushtaq, Maulvi Muhammad Aziz, Syed Hamid Jamil, Ch. Ishfaq Hassan, Iqbal Yasin Awan, Ghulam Muhammad, Manzoor Iqbal Butt, Ch. Muhammad Siddique, Usman Ali Hashim, Master Rasheed, Ch. Khurshid, Rasheed Ahmed Butt, Ch. Niaz, Ch. Muhammad Aziz, Muhammad Akseer Awan, Syex Ashraf Shah, Mukhtar Shah, Muhammad Afzal Nayam, Sardar Muhammad Haneef, Abu Sohaib and others were also present on the occasion.
