For the umpteenth time, Pakistani wives of ex-militants protest to demand travel documents

Srinagar: Reiterating their long-pending demand of providing them with legal travel documents to return, several Pakistani wives of ex-Kashmiri militants, who arrived in this side of Kashmir under a rehabilitation scheme, on Monday carried out a protest rally in Srinagar for the umpteenth time.

Dozens of the women assembled at Press Enclave Srinagar and carried out a protest rally from Press Colony to Lal Chowk for their demand of travel documents so that they can fly back to their homeland.

They said that despite repeated protests, the government has turned a deaf ear towards them, and failed to address their genuine issues so far.

“If the government can allow the ladies among us to contest the DDC polls, why aren’t they providing us travel documents,” they asked.

“We have our families on the other side of the border. We too are humans and want to meet our loved ones,” Saira, one among the women, said.

She said that they have knocked on almost all the doors but do not know why their voices go unheard.

The women reiterated their demand and appealed to the governments of India and Pakistan to provide them with travel documents and facilitate their meeting with their loved ones.

Hundreds of Kashmiri men who went to Pakistan administered Kashmir for arms training in the 1990s and early 2000s came back with wives after then Omar Abdullah-led government introduced a “rehabilitation scheme” in 2010 for them.

However, a decade later, the policy has left behind a trail of broken families, domestic abuse, unemployment and, for many wives of former militants, a yearning for their home. (KDC)