Kashmir: Yearning For Two Yards Of Land For Burial

07 June, 2012
Countercurrents.org
Many elderly people from (PoK) who visited this part of Jammu and Kashmir crossing LoC by newly launched bus service refuse to return, claiming this part of the state to be their origin. They wish to live, die and be buried in their birthplace, writes Ashutosh Sharma from Jammu and Kashmir

Just two yards of land for burial in the land of birth is their final wish. They migrated to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) during the wars of 1947 and 1965 and in certain cases even after that. And, they “returned to roots” through Rah-e-Aman of Poonch-Rawalkot cross Line of Control (LoC) bus service which started in 2006 and Karvaan-e-Aman (Srinagar and Muzaffarabad cross LoC bus service) in April, 2005.

The bus service was started as a goodwill gesture to facilitate meetings between the divided families living on both sides of the LoC.

In the recent years, many writ petitions have been filed in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court under section 9(2) of Citizenship Act, 1955 wherein the petitioners have sought to be treated like any other state subject as they were born in this part of undivided state. India claims entire Jammu and Kashmir as its integral part and therefore by that measure, as they put it, they also belong to India.

Nevertheless, after hearing them in person, the court has given interim relief to many of them by ordering that they should not be deported until the final decision on their applications for the grant of citizenship.

According to present system, the passengers belonging to both sides of the LoC are allowed to travel and stay on the other side on special permits for a stipulated period of time.

Like many other such elderly people, ninety three-year old Anara Begum who was born in undivided Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir and migrated to Baag district in PoK, has been fighting a legal battle for the last three years to get her final wish fulfilled.

Anara Begum migrated to Pakistan along with her husband, Navab Khan alias Babu Khan and three daughters in 1965. However, she could only return after a gap of nearly 44 years on April 9 in 2009. Though the cross LoC Permit allowed her to stay only for a month in this part of the state, she moved the court seeking permission to stay here with her only son, Rashid who lives in Jhullas village near LoC in Poonch district for the rest of her life.

Her life seems to be trail of tragedies so far, as a demure Anara starts narrating her story. Her three children died in infancy. Her husband married another woman. During her stay in PoK, her parents died here but she could not attend their burial rites. She could not participate in the wedding ceremony of her only son. Her brothers and a sister died here but the news of their demise reached her too late across the border. She recalls that when she left for Pakistan her son, Rashid was hardly ten-year old but when she came back, the same Rashid was a grandfather of three children.

“At the time of migration, my husband told me that army was after him in connection with the killing of an army officer. We had no option but to rush to Pakistan. Rashid was chronically ill so I handed him over to my parents and went off with my husband and three daughters hoping that we would return soon,” she explains.

“In PoK we settled in Nazarpur in Reera area of Baag tehsil. With in a few years of migration, the second wife of my husband died. After her death I raised her daughter Sharifa and son, Latief like my own children,” she adds.

“My husband died a decade ago. I had married off my daughters and there was no one to look after me in this age,” she says, adding, “When I reached here, I was almost blind. My son Rashid got my eyes operated and now I can see things clearly. For the first time when I visited the graves of my parents here, I could not see them but I felt them with my hands.”

Adds Anara Begum resolutely: “I spent all my life in turbulence but I want to die peacefully here. I wish to be buried by my son alongside the graves of my parents.”

“My husband would regret his decision of leaving our ailing son here,” she says with watery eyes, adding, “After our relocation, he lived and died with the same sense of remorse.” Besides many other relatives, Anara Begum has a younger brother and a sister who live in the nearby villages.

And Anara Begum is not the only one in such a situation, there are many more with the similar life history.

“The issue needs to be resolved on humanitarian grounds as they are in old age,” says senior advocate and vice president Bar Association of Jammu , Mohammad Usman Salaria

“They migrated to the area under Pakistani occupation during the war of 1947 and 1965 due to different reasons. But today they have no body to look after them there. Moreover, they feel a deep bond with the land where they were born and brought up. I have filed more than eight petitions in the honourable High Court arguing that PoK was part of erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir and India claims PoK as its integral part. Moreover, they migrated from this part of the state in a warlike situation,” he adds and claims: “Their names can be traced in the voters lists and ration cards at the time of their migration.”

In a recent judgment, he said that the court has ordered to club all such cases. “The exact number of such cases in the state is not yet known. But the court has sought counter-affidavits from the state government and the central government,” he adds.

Though the final decision of the Court is yet to come, there are people like Ghulam Mohammad who died during pendency of the case. He came to village Loran in tehsil Mandi of Poonch district in July 2007. However, he died of a heart attack in January 2008 and was buried in his ancestral graveyard as per his last wish.

Another such petitioner, Qazi Illam Din who came to village Rajpura in tehsil Mandi of Poonch district in September 2008 also died in February 2009 during the pendency of case. Subsequently, their writ petitions were rendered infructuous by the court. The fate of those alive continues to be hanging fire.

(http://www.countercurrents.org/asharma070612.htm)

Old Man With Young Ideas

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110911/spectrum/main4.htm

My Poetry

Inheritance of War

Landmines endanger life of villagers 
Teenager, old man lose limbs in recent blasts

Ashutosh Sharma
Tribune News Service
Jammu, August 5 
Thirteen-year-old Zahida Parveen was moving around while her cattle were grazing when she unwittingly stepped on an anti-personnel mine and set the device activated. Within a fraction of a second, there was a huge blast and the girl was lying unconscious on the ground.

Mohammad Shareef, father of Zahida Parveen (right) who got injured after she stepped on a landmine in Jandrola village in Poonch. Tribune photos: Inderjeet Singh A few hours later, she regained senses only to find that she had lost a lower-limb for the rest of her life. Admitted in the ward no. 2 of the orthopedics department at Government Medical College and Hospital Jammu, she is struggling to come to the terms with the rude reality. The incident happened on the evening of July 22 at the border village of Jandrola in Mandi tehsil of Poonch near the LoC. The mines randomly planted by the military have reportedly already killed at least five persons of the village. Mohammad Shareef, victim’s father, rued: “Army personnel were present near the spot, but they did not attend to the badly injured child lying unconscious there.  When I reached the spot, they were standing there as mute spectators”. An inconsolable Shareef, who is a small farmer, recollected: “I pleaded with junior army officers for a vehicle to rush my daughter to the hospital, but they were unmoved”. “With a great deal of efforts, villagers hired a private vehicle and only then she could be shifted to the district hospital and then to Jammu,” he said and added: “Gazing at her amputated leg, my dearest daughter laments as to why is she alive to live like a handicap”. “She was very excited after she got promoted to class VIII this year. But now she won’t be able to go to school,” he added. The girl was visibly choked with emotions and could not say anything. Shareef claimed to have spent Rs 30,000 on her treatment without any help from anyone. In the adjoining ward lies another mine victim, Mohammad Hussain (60) of Shahpur village in Haveli tehsil. He had been a porter with the Army for 15 years. On July 22, he was engaged in a work by the Army. He was cutting the bushes when a landmine went off. Though his right leg remained intact, his left leg below knee had to be amputated.  “I was shifted to the Civil Hospital at Poonch by the Army. Thereafter, my family shifted me to this hospital,” said Hussain. “The Army authorities had engaged me and used to mark my attendance but they were irregular in paying salary to me,” he alleged and added, “They have not extended any financial help to me so far”. “I am useless for the rest of my life,” he regretted and alleged, “They (Armymen) knew that the area had been mined which is why they did not clear the area themselves and asked me instead”. Like Zahida, he is also not the only person who became a victim of a landmine in his locality. “There are many others who have lost limbs in such blasts. They have also not got any relief from the government. Though the Army has assured to provide the job of a porter to my son, I will not allow him,” he added. (http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110806/jkplus.htm#1)

Operation Sadbhavana:Whose responsibility is it anyway?

Public facilities created by Army in state of neglect  
Ashutosh Sharma 
Tribune News Service
Jammu, July 26


The facilities and infrastructure developed by the Army in militancy-hit areas under Operation Sadbhavana have failed to serve the purpose, as these seem to be nobody’s responsibility.



While the facilities like health centres and vocational training centres are in a state of utter neglect, the Army claims that the public utilities are normally developed under its goodwill mission on the demand of local people. Thereafter, it says, the civil administration is responsible for the management and maintenance of these facilities.


On the contrary, the civil administration cites limited resources and manpower and blames the Army for working in an unplanned way without taking it into confidence. Consequently, the lack of cooperation and coordination between the two has resulted in a huge waste of public money.


For instance, the Public Health Centre at Khardi Karmarda in Poonch, which was set up in 2005 by the Army, is barely 2 km from a well-furbished government health centre in an adjoining village.


Villagers say the health centre could not remain functional beyond three to four months after its inauguration as the staff provided by the government’s Health Department stopped visiting it.


“When the Army procured land from me for the health centre, I was promised that one member of my family would be provided a job there. But the promise was not fulfilled,” said Sher Khan. He added that, “After the staff deputed at the health centre stopped coming here, I took back the possession of my land.”


Sher Khan lives near the health centre’s building and has been using it for storing fodder and agricultural implements.
Locals say there are many other health centres constructed by the Army in the area which are also in a state of neglect. There are computer centres and vocational training centres, which are non-functional. There are complaints that equipment have been stolen from many centres. Also, the micro hydroelectric projects set up by the Army on traditional watermills are lying defunct.


“We are just facilitators. It is the responsibility of the civil administration to take care of public facilities and infrastructure after the Army builds them,” said a senior Army officer, wishing not to be quoted.


“It is not practically possible for the Army to sustain the infrastructure and public facilities developed under Operation Sadbhavana as the Army cannot take over the functions of the civil administration. It can only help the civil administration in the problem areas,” he added.


Deputy Commissioner, Poonch, Ajit Kumar Sahu said, “To construct a building is quite easy, but sustaining it for catering to public demands is a different thing. The second part involves funds, manpower and many other issues. Whenever the Army builds a building or other public facility, it does not take the district administration into confidence.”


“The Army approaches local people or village heads before creating such facilities, but it never approaches us for a no objection certificate. It carries out the entire exercise in a very unplanned manner,” he added. 

Border Residents

LIFE BEHIND 

BARBED WIRES 

The fence along the border with Pakistan, which has been erected several kms behind the zero line, has left hundreds of Indian villages sandwiched. Residents of such villages, which are almost cut off from the rest of the country, consider themselves prisoners in their own villages, reports Ashutosh Sharma from Jammu & Kashmir

Life is tough in Indian villages and more

 so in the border villages. It becomes even tougher in areas caught between the barbed fence put up by the Indian security forces on the border with Pakistan that runs through many districts of Jammu region.

The fence at the border was erected at a time when there used to be heavy shelling and infiltration bids by terrorists from the Pakistani side in the aftermath of the Kargil war. However, the fence was erected several kilometres behind the zero line. It has virtually cut off areas in between from the rest of the country.


For people living in these villages, it is like crossing a border in the form of the fence to enter their own country for basic facilities like health, education and other administrative works in a tehsil or district office. Their freedom of movement has been severely curtailed by the fence as they believe that they have become prisoners in their own country.


The size and population of such villages is not small. One such village Bhagyal Dara, which is 15 km from Poonch district headquarters, has two panchayat constituencies - Degwar and Bhagyal Dhara.


There are hundreds of such villages which have been separated from the rest of the country due to the erection of the fence.


Due to security reasons, the civil administration has a limited role in the affairs of residents living in such “barbed corridors”. The villagers are under constant surveillance. At the same time, they live under constant fear of shelling from the Pakistani side.


There are gates at the fence which are the entry and exit points for the villagers. The gates are manned by soldiers. The fence looks like a barbed barrier comprised of two rows of fencing and coils of concertina wires which are usually 12-15 ft in height and nearly 10 ft in width. During the night, the fence is electrified whereas the areas between the fence and the border are usually mined.

Says a newly elected village head on the condition of anonymity: “At such gates, the villagers are frisked thoroughly and security men rummage through their belongings. Thereafter, their identity is established on the basis of identity cards issued to them before they are allowed to go ahead. The whole drill puts children and women to severe stress and vulnerable to indiscreet body touch. They go through the agony of invasion of their privacy every day, a price that they pay to be at their own place”.



The Army has issued identification cards to the villagers. If one loses it or does not have it for any reason, he or she might be in a serious trouble as the Army does not recognise any other proof of identification.


“Our people are usually patted down in the name of security checks. Young soldiers usually indulge in groping or other acts that go against respecting the dignity of our women and girls,” he adds. Parents in such villages do not send their girls to study beyond middle level because of the fence and security checks at the gates.


“There should be woman cops at the gates. If the government cannot shift the fence, it must depute woman personnel,” says a student of Government Degree College, Poonch, who comes from one such village.


People living in these villages are cut off socially as well. It is difficult for a relative to visit them. “At the time of marriage or other social functions, we face a lot of problems,” rues a resident of Bhagyal Dhara, who runs a small shop in Poonch.


“The visitors are permitted after going through an excruciating exercise. First, the security personnel at the gate call the villager concerned for the verification of the visitor and only after that the visitor is allowed to enter the area on the responsibility of the villager,” he adds.


The same procedure is followed when the visitor leaves the area. The family members of villagers working abroad too face the same problems for visiting their near and dear ones or their ancestral home. They have to seek identification proof from the local police. “It seems going to Pakistan is easier than visiting our own homes where we were born,” say people living in such a situation.


The civil administration maintains that journalists can visit any forward village without any restriction, but in reality, they are not allowed inside the villages by the Armymen guarding the gates.


The writer had been to the border district of Poonch to interview scores of victims belonging to villages like Kerni, Degwar and Bhagyal Dhara, who had not got justice despite judgments passed in their favour by the Jammu and Kashmir Human Rights Commission at different points of time. But unfortunately, he was never allowed to go in despite hard efforts.


Mohammad Matloob Khan, additional deputy commissioner, Poonch, maintains that no authority letters are issued to mediapersons to visit villages across the fence. “Those villages are part of India and any person can go there without any check. Nobody has the authority to stop you,” he says.


People living in villages across the fence not only lack basic amenities like roads, transportation, health centres, water and electricity, but they have also been denied human rights and civil liberties.


“In the evening gates, are closed for the villagers. If the villagers have to take a serious patient to the hospital during the night, they have to seek permission, which sometimes takes long. Delays prove fatal at times,” says a senior resident who works in the city and returns to his village well before the sunset.


According to Kerni residents, only one member of each family is allowed to stay inside the fence during the night. In 1990, they were shifted to Qasba village outside the fence by the government as there was a war-like situation. The villagers have their agricultural lands inside the fence and therefore they visit Kerni every afternoon.

Villagers coming out of the fenced area in Kerni.

Such villagers work in their fields the entire day and in the evening, they return to their kutcha houses in Qasba. It has been their daily routine for the past 21 years.


Even Qasba village is not connected through road. To reach the city, the people have to trek down three kilometers to board some passenger vehicle.
Border residents do enjoy relaxation in government jobs on the basis of certificates issued to them by the Revenue Department, but the rate of employment is negligible.
Kerni village has a population of more than 600, but ironically, there is only one ex-serviceman, a working clerk in government department and an ReT teacher. Rest of the villagers are BPL (below poverty line) cardholders.


“Due to lack of educational facilities for our children, they are not able to study beyond class VIII, how can they get government jobs despite reservation,” said a villager, adding that those who have land in border villages but live in cities avail all benefits accorded to border residents by the government.


Going by the annual reports of the Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission, the rate of human rights violation is many times higher in such villages as compared to other conflict-ridden and insurgency-hit areas of the state.


“Many people belonging to these villages have lost their lives and limbs in war-like situations during nineties. Besides barbaric atrocities by militants, there are cases of custodial deaths, extra constitutional killings, fake encounters, disappearances, torture and harassment at the hands of security forces,” says human right activist Sardar Kamal Jeet Singh, who claims to have filed more than 850 complaints of rights violation with the commission.


“Their victimisation has happened on many accounts. They have suffered due to repeated wars, insurgency and counter insurgency operations. But they are also victims of bureaucratic apathy as most of them have not been compensated or inadequately compensated,” he says, adding, 


“Even such cases of relief and compensation which were recommended to empowerment committee of the Homes Department by the State Human Rights Commission have not been settled. Action taken reports or proposed action taken reports are hardly submitted to the commission by the departments concerned”.


“Many victims have stopped visiting the office of the deputy commissioner after they did not get compensation or relief for decades,” he added.


“The fence was erected with an aim to discourage infiltration and smuggling. Now that the guns have fallen silent and normalcy has been restored, the Ministry of Defence in consultation with its counterparts should push the fence to the actual border so that the villagers living across it are not barred from enjoying their natural rights and civil liberties,” said a sarpanch of one such villge, who is presently living in his another home in Poonch town.


“If it is not possible then we should be rehabilitated somewhere else. For how long our generations will suffer because of hostility between the two countries?” he asks.


Aiyaz Jaan, Poonch MLA, says 90 per cent of his constituency runs along the LoC. “I am aware of the problems of the people who have been living across the fence. On my proposal, the Army has started shifting the fence to the zero line in my constituency. The work is going on in the Sabzian area and 20 per cent of the work has been accomplished so far. The remaining may get done in the next couple of years. We need to understand that it will happen in a phased manner,” he maintains.


"I have constituted village-level committees in the areas across the fence and it is ensured that a local girl or woman is deputed along with the Army at the gates. However, it is not possible in the far-flung and inaccessible areas for obvious reasons,” he says, adding, “The Army has been very helpful to the local residents. Where the civil administration fails, the Army comes into play. I had requested the Army to enhance the number of gates at the fence. Last year, they added four more gates for the convenience of residents”.

Farmers work in fields across the fence along
the LoC in Jammu. Tribune photos

“The Chief Minister has assured me to enhance the Border Development Fund which is likely to solve most of their problems,” he says, and adds: “I have also asked the government to accrue benefits of all welfare schemes like Indira Aawas Yojana and issuance of BPL ration cards to the border residents. One of such proposals that aim for the creation of health and educational facilities in the villages across the fence is lying with the Finance Department”.


“The villagers of Kerni would be allowed to live inside their houses in a phased manner. We have completed two phases, another four are remaining,” he adds.


(http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110727/jkplus.htm#1)

Justice Denied?

Sarfraz says 
his father was 
killed by 
the Army 
while he was 
engaged in 
forced labour 

Son seeks fresh probe into father’s death 


Ashutosh Sharma                                                    Tribune News Service
Jammu, July 22
A resident of Islamabad village in Haveli tehsil of district Poonch, Sarfraz Khan has sought re-investigation into the death of his father, who had died while working for the Army.
Sarfraz says, “The death of my father affected the family irrevocably.” He rues that in spite of recommendations by the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC), his family has not got ex-gratia relief or any other help from the government.


His father, Mohammad Sarwar Khan Rathore, died on August 19, 1999. “The police safeguarded the accused Armymen during investigation portraying the death as accidental. But those present on the spot, who are still alive, say that he was killed. I appeal to the authorities to order a fresh probe in the case.”


“My father was on way to Poonch from Pelara village. When the bus he was travelling in reached Arai Nallah, some officers of RR forcibly evicted him from the bus along with some other passengers and ordered to carry ammunition boxes to Gun Point (an Army post),” claimed Sarfraz adding, 


“When my father refused, the infuriated Armymen compelled him to lift two boxes of ammunition instead of one. After walking some distance, my father dropped the boxes as he was not able to walk with the load.”


“Following this, an Armyman bludgeoned his head with the butt of rifle, killing him on the spot,” he alleged.


“My father was a dignified man. He had never done any physical work at home,” he said and added, “My father even asked the Armymen to take money from him to engage some labourer for the same work and let him go. But they were adamant.”


The police in its rejoinder to the SHRC said Sarwar died of head injury while serving the Army. 


“Army officers of RR stopped the bus and requested the passengers that if anybody was willing to serve the nation by helping the Army in carrying ammunition/luggage to Gun Point. On this, some male passengers, including Mohammad Sarwar, picked up ammunition box willingly and followed other persons,” the police told the commission. 


“Unfortunately, after walking a few feet, he lost his balance due to which the box he was carrying, injured posterior of his head causing death on the spot,” the police said.


The commission in its judgment in June 2008 upheld the police version and maintained that he died while serving the Army. But it recommended that the next of the kin of the deceased be given a relief of Rs 1 lakh, besides a government job on compassionate grounds. 


“We have not got any kind of relief so far,” Sarfraz said and added, “I had to leave the school soon after my father’s death. One of my sisters, Shahyaza Banoo is suffering from paralysis of both legs whereas another sister, Saydha Banoo has lost her mental balance.”