J&K: Pakistani spouses of former militants stage protest

Dozens of slogans shouting women including their children holding placards protested at Press Enclave on Residency Road in Srinagar against the alleged failure of the authorities to address their grievances. “We again appeal to the authorities to either accept us as citizens or send us back to Pakistan” said one of the women protesters who identified herself as Misbah. She said that a memorandum was submitted to the Lt Governor Manoj Sinha earlier who had promised to reply within fifteen days, never happened. She said their struggle for the past several years is going in vain and nobody is paying heed to their vows. They also appealed to women rights bodies across the world to take cognizance of their plight and plea, she added. More than 370 women from across the LoC and Pakistan – who had married Kashmiri men when the latter had crossed the border for arms training in 1990s and early 2000s – came to the Valley between 2010 and 2016 under a government rehabilitation policy during the Omar Abdullah regime.