Rehab plan for tribals living on Indo-Pak border sought

Tribune News Service

Jammu, October 23

In view of repeated cross-border shelling and firing on the Line of Control (LoC) and international border, Gujjar and Bakerwals have demanded the government should formulate a rehabilitation plan for tribals living on the border and shift them along with their livestock to safer areas.

A prominent NGO, working for preservation of tribal heritage, said the communities living in Poonch, Rajouri, Jammu, Samba and Kathua should be permanently rehabilitated due to repeated problems faced by them due to border shelling.

The community made this appeal through the Tribal Research and Cultural Foundation, a main body of Gujjars of state, who are suffering due to heavy shelling and firing in different border areas in the wake of surgical strikes carried out by the Army a month ago.

Gujjar scholar Javaid Rahi said the administration should formulate a long-term plan of relocation of border tribes instead of advising them to evacuate their native villages on day-to-day basis in view of cross-border firing.

“Tribal communities of Gujjars and Bakerwals are main sufferers of this daily firing in Rajouri and Poonch and require an immediate attention for a relocation,” Rahi said.

The tribals constitute 20 per cent of total population of Jammu and Kashmir. They occupy frontier areas along the border from Poonch to Lakhanpur, Uri Karnah to Gurz and Kargil. In view of their difficult nomadic life, the Central government granted them Scheduled Tribe status in 1991 in J&K.

“During the past one year, around 10 members of Gujjars community have been killed and several injured in the shelling and firing along the LoC and international border in Jammu and Poonch districts, triggering migration of about 16,000 people from the border hamlets,” a statement issued by NGO said.