POK refugees threaten to cross border

Jammu, Apr 20 (UNI) Alleging neglect of their problems the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK) refugees today threatened to cross over to the neighbouring country Pakistan on April 24, the day of the third Round Table Conference which was organised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi.

The Chairman of Refugees United Front (RUF), a refugees forum, Rajiv Chunni said in a press conference that to protest against the situation, as many as 3,000 refugees from Pakistan and POK have decided to cross over via R S Pura sector in Jammu on April 24.

''we were forced to migrate to Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Pakistan in 1947 but the accused union leadereship had continuously ignored our problems,'' Mr Channi said.

Both the state and Centre have continuously ignored our problems. We have neither been called to participate in earlier rtcs nor given invitation to present our view points in the working groups, POK refugees representative said.

Mr Chunni said the POK refugees are a natural party in Kashmir problems because they had been the citizenship in jammu and kashmie even after 60 years but central leadership has been totally ignoring us in peace process.

Two other leaders of L R Gandhi and K R Nandyal said that the refugees had been agitating for several decades for ownership rights and citizenship rights in Jammu and Kashmir, but government had not paid any heed to our problems.

''Since the authorities are not interested in solving our problems in the state, we are forced to go back to POK and Pakistan,'' the leaders said.

UNI