annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights

INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 Jammu and Kashmir
has reportedly agreed in principle to
release Rs 150 crore to set up two room
sets for the Kashmiri migrant pandits
living in different camps in Jammu. 144 On
19 December 2004, a three-member interministerial
team arrived in Jammu on a
four-day visit to interact with the state
government and a cross section of the
migrant Kashmiri pandits. 145 At the
meeting of the inter-ministerial meeting, J
& K Revenue Relief and Rehabilitation
Minister Hakim Mohammad Yaseen
reportedly announced that the J & K
government was working on a special
employment package for the Kashmiri
Pandits. 146
However, the conditions of the
60,000 border migrants, who were forced
to flee their homes along the India-
Pakistan border in Jammu and Kashmir
remained deplorable. Though 45,000 of
them have returned to their ancestral
villages and have enjoyed peace on the
Line of Actual Control in the Jammu
sector following the enforcement of the
ceasefire with Pakistan, over 12,000
persons, including women and children,
have been spending days in penury and
misery at camps at the Devipur in the
Akhnoor sector. Those who returned to
their villages were reportedly not
provided cash assistance to repair the
houses. Those living in the camps alleged
that promises of allotting small plots and
financial assistance for building houses in
safer areas were never fulfilled. 147
The apathy of the state government
towards the plight of the border migrants
was manifested from tortured to death of
Chairman of Border Migrant Action
Committee (BMAC), Chajju Ram of
Nikkian village in Khour block of tehsil
Akhnoor in Jammu district on 2 March
2004 at Kot Ghari. On 27 February 2004,
Chajju Ram was beaten by the police
during a lathi-charge on the protestors
demanding rehabilitation. He succumbed
to his injuries. 148
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