SOS International to end 26-day long protest for rehab rights of Pok people

SOS International, an organisation representing displaced persons from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) will end its 26-day long 'chain dharna' to demand their rehabilitation, it said here on Monday. However, the organisation will start the second phase of the agitation next week with mass demonstration-cum-dharna at Poonch followed by similar programmes at various district headquarters across the Jammu division.

"The first phase of the agitation, which began on December 27 with the holding of chain dharnas, will culminate tomorrow (Tuesday)," chairman SOS International Rajiv Chuni told reporters here. He said the PoK displaced persons were not demanding anything extraordinary but only their "due rights", which include implementation of the whole package passed by state cabinet in October 2014, facilities to all displaced persons at par with Kashmiri Pandit migrants and reservation of eight assembly seats.

The SOS International is also seeking permission to visit religious places in PoK, the inclusion of 5,300 PoK displaced families living outside the state in the ambit of the package passed by the state cabinet and return of cash deposits of the people kept with the J&K Bank in Mirpur (PoK), he said. In November 2015, the centre had announced a package of Rs 2000 crore as "one-time settlement" for 36, 454 displaced families from PoK living in the state.

During the second phase of agitation, Chuni said white papers would be distributed among people on the plight of the community as well as exposing the Bharatiya Janata Party, which boasts of 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas' but gives "step-motherly" treatment to the community. "We fully supported this party (BJP) in the last Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the past but they ditched us and its slogan of 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas' turned out to be a 'Jumla' of Prime Minister Narendra Modi," he alleged.

He also appealed the people to teach the saffron party a lesson in the forthcoming polls. Besides protest demonstrations at the district level, he said a memorandum of demands would be submitted to the Governor's administration through concerned deputy commissioners.

"The second phase will be followed by the third stage of the ongoing agitation, which will continue till the logical conclusion and if the government continues to remain insensitive towards our demands, the displaced persons will not hesitate to adopt extreme steps," Chuni said. The timing and the nature of the third phase would be announced later, he added.