It has been eight years since they landed in Kashmir under a ‘rehabilitation’ policy by the then government for return for former militants, but there has been no end to their woes ever since.
At least 450 Kashmiri men, who had crossed the Line ofControl for arms training from time to time since 1990, returned to the Valleyunder the rehabilitation policy announced by the Omar Abdullah-led governmentin 2010. However, this return wasn’t all hunky-dory for the wives of these men.
While their children were denied admissions in schools forbeing born in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, majority of these “PaK brides” saythey are facing a major challenge now: divorce by their husbands.
“Our husbands have divorced us. We have been left in a stateof great despair,” said a group of women, who landed in Kashmir with theirhusbands from PaK under the 2010 rehabilitation policy. “We are left with nooption but to seek a safe passage to Muzafarabad, where we hail from.”
These women have now petitioned the Kashmir’s grand mufti,Nasir-ul-Islam, requesting him to plead their cases before the state governmentso that they are allowed to go back to PaK.
At least 50 women who landed in Kashmir with their husbandssince 2010 have now separated from them.
“We have been struggling with issues of poverty and lowsocial acceptability,” the group of women, cited above, said.
Majority of these brides allege that their husbands weredenied “benefits” of the rehabilitation policy.
“With the passage of time, we were unable to even feedourselves, let alone our children. Things started worsening as my husbanddidn’t get a job anywhere and gradually started developing a mental ailment,which ultimately led to our separation,” said Posha, a resident ofMuzaffarabad.
Posha has three children— two sons and a daughter. Shemarried to Abdur Rashid of Handwara in northern Kashmir’s Kupwara district inMuzaffarabad in 1999 and had been living a “happy” life there.
“But things started worsening from the day we returned tothis side via Teetwal,” she said. “My husband has divorced me and I am alonewith my three children. I am living in a rented room now. I have approached theoffice of Muslim personal law board to plead my case before the stategovernment that I must be allowed to go back to my home along with my children.Here, my life has become a hell”.
Posha said she was told by her friend Zeba, also a residentof Mirpur, to approach the court of grand mufti for redressal of hergrievances.
“My children were earlier denied admission in a school onthe pretext that all of them were born in PaK. This was against the promisesmade by the government in the 2010 rehabilitation policy. We never thought wewere returning to hell,” she said.
Another PaK woman, who wished not to be named, had a similartale to narrate.
“We have approached the grand mufti to seek his permissionunder the Islamic law (shairah) whether we can go back to Muzaffarabad since wehave no relation in Kashmir now, especially after being divorced. We arehopeful that some solution will come out from this place (the grand mufti’scourt),” she said.
The office of grand mufti has received seven cases of women,who crossed over to this side, from Nepal under the rehabilitation policy andhave now been divorced by their husbands.
Several other women have approach local muftis to finalisetheir divorce cases so that they can prepare to return to their homeland.
Talking to Greater Kashmir, grand mufti, Nasir-ul-Islam saidthat given the nature of the cases he has received in his office, he expectssuch cases to go up.
“The situation is worrisome,” he said. “These ill-fatedwomen have approached me with a hope that I will help them in one way or theother. I have decided to take up the issue formally with the stateadministration led by governor Satya Pal Malik. I believe there are only twooptions: either they should be given a safe passage to cross over to the otherside or the state government should rehabilitate them as promised in the policyannounced in 2010”.