POK JKLF opposes state subject status to West Pak refugees

Jammu, 19 May (UNI) A POK-based Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) faction has said it will oppose the demand for granting state subject status to migrants from Pakistan as they were not 'citizens' of the state.

The Muzaffrabad-based JKLF's 'Supreme Commander' Amanullah KhaN, in a statement today, said the front would oppose any move of Jammu and Kashmir Government to grant state subject status to the refugees from Pakistan. ''Being the citizens of (the then) undivided (Jammu and) Kashmir state, the people from POK deserved to be given the state subject status but not the refugees from Pakistan because they had never been the citizens of the erstwhile princely state,'' khan said.

A large number of people from Pakistan, and POK had taken refuge in this part of Jammu and Kashmir duringj Partition (1947) and after during the Indo-Pak wars of 1965 and 1971.

UNI