Re: Hindus are oppressed in Pakistan
http://in.news.yahoo.com/041124/139/2i2rl.html
Yahoo! India News Wed, Nov 24, 2004
Jalandhar, Nov.24 (ANI): As many as 200 Pakistani Hindus have migrated to Jalandhar and its adjoining areas allegedly due to religious persecution in their country.
Around 27 of them have reportedly come without proper visas, which the Punjab police say, are under investigation.
The migrants say that they were ill treated there and have more freedom here as compared to Pakistan. They also claim that they were not able to carry out their religious rituals freely in Pakistan.
“There is more freedom here. There were no temples, gurdwara’s near our place. There was no freedom. Everybody in our family has shifted here, now all my relatives are here and we have much freedom here as compared to that place in Pakistan”,said Silver Devi, a migrant from Pakistan. The migrants save their families by working as a vegetable seller or by stiching clothes for people or even being a scrap dealer. They are living in deplorable conditions here but they say that atleast they have the freedom to carry out whatever they want.
“Now that we have come here, we are not going to go back to Pakistan no matter what. But there is the problem of citizenship here. It is very difficult for us to get the visa”,said Simar Khan, another migrant.
Notably during an earlier round of migration, many Pakistani Hindus settled in Jalandhar in 1980. Most of them were granted citizenship then.
“In 1980 also some Hindu families migrated to India. The reason for their migration is believed to be their love for their motherland and their own people. Till now we don’t have any problem with them. There are no complaints of their being involved in any kind of crime so its ok for us”,said G P S Bhullar, the Senior Superintendant of Police of Jalandhar. All the Hindu migrants have the same story of discrimination to tell. Though the migrants are suffering because they do not have any work and no visa which would help them in getting the citizenship of India, they are determined to not to go back to Pakistan. (ANI)