Kashmiri youth, who crossed over to PoK in early 1990s to receive arms training but could not come back for varied reasons, are keen to return to their home and hearth and live a peaceful life which is discernible from the fact that they have shown great interest in the Jammu and Kashmir government’s rehabilitation plan. But Islamabad has got in the way of their home coming, chief minister Omar Abdullah alleged on Saturday.
He informed the state legislature, now in its Budget session, on Saturday that as many as 1,034 applications have been received from or on-behalf of the stranded youth in response to the rehabilitation policy announced in 2011 and that 67 of these cases have been favorably recommended by the government, whereas rest are in various stages of progress. The chief minister, who was replying to a question raised by Opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) member Murtza Ahmad Khan in the Legislative Council, said, “Though this initiative was opposed by the PDP dispensation during its tenure for which records of the legislature bear testimony, a mechanism has been formulated for the return of youth, some of whom have now become older, from across LoC.”