Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 3: The Gujjars, residing in the border areas of Jammu and Kashmir, have demanded from the Government to settle them permanently at safer places in the wake of consistent heavy firing on Line of Control and International Border.
The Gujjar community which mainly lives near LoC and International Border, whose livelihood depends on livestock, also wants the Government to help shift their animals along with them.
This demand was made in a programme organised by Tribal Research and Cultural Foundation held under the chairmanship of veteran scholar Dr Javaid Rahi to discuss issues of border firing viz a viz Gujjar tribe.
Dr Javaid Rahi, while condoling the death of three members of a Gujjar family, killed in heavy shelling by Pakistani forces near the Line of Control (LoC) in Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch district, stated that every year dozens of Gujjars and their livestock get killed near the border, hundreds are injured and thousands of people migrate to safer places during the firing and it requires a permanent solution with regard to security of their tribe.
The speakers appealed the State Governor Satya Pal Malik to give directives to local authorities to provide permanent places to tribal community. Besides, they demanded shelter, food and other facilities to the Gujjars and to arrange fodder for their livestock.
Speaker asserted that during the 1947, 1965 and 1971 wars, the Gujjars faced the major brunt as they were killed in large number along the LoC and the International Border.
The speakers included Ishtiaq Misbah Chowdahry, Ch Wali Mohd, Khadam Hussain, Mir Mohd Gujjar, Mohd Rizwan and others.
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