‘Pak brides’ hit streets demanding resident rights or travel documents to go back
Srinagar: “Pakistani brides” of former Kashmiri militants on Monday hit streets here yet again demanding the government either give them resident rights here, or to facilitate their return to Pakistan by issuing them travel documents (passport).
Shouting slogans, the protesting women along with their children after marching through the city center Lal Chowk assembled at Press Enclave and staged a protest demanding travel documents so that they could return to Pakistan.
Carrying placards in their hands which read “We want justice, issue passports to us and allow us to meet our families in Pakistan”, the protesters appealed to the Centre and the UT administration to either grant them resident rights here, or send them back to Pakistan.
“We have been here for the last eleven years; but we are still being treated as foreigners. Despite spending eleven long years in Kashmir, the government has not been able to grant us citizen rights, nor are any measures being taken to send us back to our homeland,” said one of the protesting women.
She said the government ignores the issues they have been confronting ever-since their arrival to Kashmir under the then Chief Minister’s rehabilitation policy for the ex-militants.
Protesters appealed to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to consider their demands with compassion and ensure their return to their homeland.
“We have been protesting for the last eleven years in support of our demands; however our pleas fall on deaf ears. We want the government to either grant us permanent resident rights here, or send us back to Pakistan at the earliest,” they added.
