Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to visit Pakistan in February or March 2007. Obviously, one of the most important issues that is likely to be discussed between him and Gen. Musharraf is Kashmir. Unfortunately, thanks to the media coverage and militant atrocities, the Kashmir issue has become too narrowly focused. The Kashmir Valley and Kashmiri Muslims have become the center of the political discourse, at the cost of significant issues facing the entire J&K state. Problems in Jammu - like those concerning the Paharis and Gujjars, in Ladakh; those of the Shia Muslims of Kargil; and of the Buddhists in Leh, have been relegated to the background, as have issues relating to regional autonomy.

One such issue is of those people forced to leave their homes in what now constitutes the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) in 1947 after the tribal raids. Subsequently, there were two more phases of movement after the 1965 and 1971 wars between India and Pakistan. While those who migrated from the then West Pakistan were given 'refugee' status and settled by the Indian government elsewhere in the country, those who migrated from PoK (mainly from Muzafarabad and Mirpur areas) are yet to be settled and live even today without 'refugee' status. The government's position has been that, since they have migrated from PoK, which is legally a part of India, they are technically not qualified to be categorized under the 'refugee' bracket. Hence, they cannot claim the benefits of refugees. For the same legal reasons, the Indian government has refused to pursue the compensation that is supposed to be given to those people in Mirpur, whose properties have been submerged due to the construction of the Mangla dam, funded by the World Bank.

On the contrary, thanks to the settlement politics initiated during Sheikh Abdullah's period, those who migrated from PoK even today live as 'tenants' in the Jammu region. Today, there are more than
1,200,000 people from PoK staying in and around Jammu with no political status, nor with any promise from the State and Union governments on where they stand in the Kashmir conflict. It is unfortunate that this section has been left outside the purview of both the Round Table Conferences.

Following is the interview with Mr Rajiv Chunni, Chairman of the SOS, an organization of PoK 'refugees' settled in J&K.

IPCS: Please provide a brief back ground about those who have migrated from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK)
Rajiv Chunni (RC): There are twelve hundred thousand wounded souls of PoK, who were subjected to genocide by the tribes backed by Pakistan regulars following Pakistani aggression in October-November 1947. This raid destroyed not only the life and property of lakhs of people but also the very fabric of human society and relationships. Thousands of innocent people were mercilessly and brutally slaughtered, property worth millions of rupees was looted or destroyed, women of all ages were kidnapped, abducted and ravished, and unspeakable atrocities were perpetrated.

The first grave mistake was made when Maharaja Hari Singh flirted with the idea of independence; it lured the rulers of Pakistan to forcibly annex the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Tribals were hired to attack the state of Jammu and Kashmir on October 22. This resulted in a full-scale tribal invasion, backed by Pakistan regulars. Unfortunately, the state of Jammu and Kashmir, and the Government of India failed, which resulted in the total migration of Hindus and Sikhs from the Pakistan occupied Kashmir. This made them refugees in their own state.

IPCS: How did the Union and State governments attempt to rehabilitate those who came from PoK?
RC: The Central and the State Government of J&K set upon different schemes to rehabilitate them temporarily at different places, in houses, in shops and other available places. Refugees from Muzaffarabad desiring to settle in Kashmir valley were not allowed to settle there. Some 300 families of Muzaffarabad who had settled in District Kupwara of Kashmir valley were uprooted again and pushed to Jammu.

In J&K, the State government has always been of the Kashmiris, by the Kashmiris and for Kashmiris. Since PoK refugees were not Kashmiris, there were not allowed to settle in the Kashmir valley. The J&K Government never wanted PoK refugees to settle in the territory. It was the central government's support that allowed some refugees to settle in the Jammu region. Many others were forced to settle in other states like Punjab, Rajasthan and UP.

Neither the Union nor the State government has been sincere in settling these refugees. There were schemes, but the administrators of these schemes have been confusing relief measures and small ex-gratia grant, with rehabilitation. These are clear instances of poor, innocent, uprooted people, being deceived by their own government.

IPCS: What is the present status of those who have migrated from PoK?
RC: The PoK refugees have not been compensated for their properties left behind in PoK territory in 1947. Whenever this issue is raised with the Government of India, we are told that the PoK territory will be retrieved and PoK refugees will be sent back to their places to live in their own homes. These refugees were further told that payment of compensation at this junction would jeopardize India's case at the UN.

IPCS: Do you believe that you will return to live in your homes in PoK?
RC: Can we say with any stretch of imagination that government of India will ever retrieve PoK territory? Has our government enough capacity to achieve that goal? Common sense would answer these questions in "No" and "Never" answers. The Government of India has been employing this excuse to delay this most vital issue of compensation for 60 years now. The fact remains that over a million PoK refugees are denied the right to their property. They are being grossly fooled.

Even though the Government of India talks of retrieving PoK territory, it has practically closed the case of PoK refugees as a non-issue and is going to the extent of treating the holocaust of 1947 as a non-event and PoK Refugees as non-entities.

The Government of India is also confused over the status of PoK refugees, and whether they are 'refugees', 'migrants', 'displaced persons' or 'internally displaced persons'. In whatever category the PoK refugees are placed, there are specific benefits for each category to which these people are entitled as human beings. But, we have been deprived of all such benefits. The Government of India is under an obligation to give us all such benefits.

IPCS: What role has the State government of J&K played with respect to PoK 'refugees'?
RC: In the resettlement and rehabilitation of PoK refugees, the J&K Government had adopted a clear policy that no refugees can settle in the Kashmir valley and if possible all PoK refugees should be pushed out of J&K State. Thus, PoK refugees have been victims twice of communal fundamentalism - first, they were uprooted from their homes and second, and they were treated most shabbily by the State Government with regard to rehabilitation, because they were non-Muslims.

The J&K Government created an authority titled Custodian of Evacuee Property to safeguard the property of Muslims who migrated to Pakistan in 1947 and were settled there permanently as citizens of Pakistan, and fully compensated them for their properties left behind in J&K State. Instead, the J&K Government should have created an authority to assess the properties in PoK. In 1982, the J&K Government passed an Act in the assembly titled Resettlement Act 1982 by virtue of which Muslims who had migrated to Pakistan, and settled there as permanent citizens, could come back and claim their properties. This was yet another blow to the process of resettlement of PoK refugees.

IPCS: What should be the focus of the PM's visit to Pakistan, from the PoK 'refugees' perspective?
RC: The PM must raise offensively and firmly the issue of vacation of PoK with General Musharraf; the PM can quote the 1994 unanimous resolution by the Indian Parliament regarding PoK that "one third of the area of Jammu and Kashmir State now under the illegal occupation of Pakistan is an integral part of India and it shall be vacated." We have never found the Indian government raising this issue at any level of talks with Pakistan. If we cannot, then why are there such resolutions, and why have we have ruined four generations of PoK Refugees with false promises and resolutions by putting them in ghettos without any access to the education, food, clothing and shelter?

Pakistan has always insisted that India must accept that Kashmir is the only problem between India and Pakistan and not PoK. No doubt, India never accepted this point in principle, but in our action it is going other way. By excluding the PoK Refugees from the Round Table Conferences and Working Groups and inviting only Kashmiri separatists and Kashmiri Pandits we have already proved that the problem is Kashmir only and not PoK.

IPCS: Given these problems, what are the major demands of the 'refugees' from PoK?
RC: Politically, PoK Refugees are orphaned, as they do not have any segment/constituency of their own, despite the fact that 24 Assembly seats are kept reserved for the PoK area in the J&K Assembly. What purpose do these reserved seats serve? We do not know.

While 1/3rd of the population of PoK area is residing on this side of the Line of Control, why is it that even 1/3 of these reserved seats are not open for these refugees by creating floating constituencies or constituencies in exile? This has been done for the Kashmiri Pandits by providing them an Assembly segment of Habbakadal for which they (KPs) can cast their vote from any where in India Why has this not been done in the case of PoK Refugees?

Those displaced from PoK should be accorded refugee status so that they are provided all benefits under national and international laws. At the national level, PoK refugees must be included in the dialogue on J&K at every level, being a first and natural party.

At the technical level, an autonomous PoK Refugee's Development Board should be constituted with all financial powers and liberal aid for their upliftment and betterment. The houses and lands on which the PoK Refugees are living at present as tenants should be allotted to them permanently. The Central Act of 1954 (Displaced Persons Compensation and Rehabilitation Act) by virtue of which the displaced persons from West Punjab and East Bengal were settled permanently, should also be applied in the case of PoK Refugees.

In PoK, the claims of moveable and immoveable property left behind in 1947 should be registered immediately. The claims of these properties should be settled at the present market rate.

The categorization of PoK refugees based on the year in which they reached here, should be abolished and they should be treated as one group to end the confusion. Until the final settlement of the issue, the benefits which are provided to Valley migrants should also be given to the PoK Refugees. These include monthly cash doles, ration money, and reservation for their wards in professional and technical colleges of the country, etc. Unemployed educated PoK refugee youth should be given interest-free loans to enable them to establish their businesses, and these youth should also be given some reservation in government jobs. In addition, with regard to those who had their accounts at the Mirpur branch of the J&K Bank, the money lying in this bank should be paid to the account holders or to their legal heirs with interest compounded from 1947. Finally, PoK refugees including those in Bhor, Chatha, Simbal, Gadigarh, Badyal Brahmana, Keerian Gandyal and Raj Bagh should be provided with all civic amenities and health services.