From Gopal Sachar
According to a report of a local editor, several youth of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) met him at Muzaffarabad, the capital of PoK, to narrate their miserable plight. In the early 90s, during the euphoria generated by ‘Azadi for Kashmir’, they had crossed over to PoK to acquire training in weapons and join the militant ranks. But were kept in reserve in PoK for not handling the weapons.
They were used as showpieces to tell foreign journalists, especially from the West, that they had been coerced from the Kashmir Valley by the Indian authorities as they had aspired for azadi (freedom); but now reality had dawned upon them as they have realised that they were being exploited.
Many of these strayed youth have now become quite mature and some have even got married to local girls in PoK itself. But they are facing a starvation-like situation as they are paid salary at the rate of mere Rs 25 per day by the local Relief Commissioner. Hence, they now want to come back but do not know how to cross the LoC to return to their homeland. Moreover, they are under surveillance of the militant commanders and the government authorities in PoK. Their only hope is to wait for the opening of the routes and the launching of the bus services between PoK and Jammu and Kashmir.
In one of his reports, this visiting journalist has quoted several names of such youth who met him and who virtually narrated their tales of woes with tears in their eyes and in a choked voice.
In another report the visiting journalist revealed that there is a strong desire among the large section of the people for setting up an independent Kashmir as they were fed up with the behaviour of Pakistani authorities and the strong-arms methods employed by the military rulers. However, such elements are dubbed as Indian agents.
The report also revealed that developmental activities in PoK have been planned in such a manner that certain areas of PoK have been linked with major towns of Pakistan while there is no connectivity amongst important towns of PoK. For instance, the capital town of Muzaffarabad has a good road link with Islamabad and Rawalpindi; so is Mirpur is linked with Lahore in West Punjab, obviously to keep the people of PoK divided and away from each other but linked with the Pakistanis.
However, the common people have voiced a great desire for peace between India and Pakistan as they are fed up with the hostilities between the two people who have the same culture and the same blood.
