Cross-LoC travel
Divided families struggle to get permit
Shariq Majeed
Tribune News Service

Mendhar (Poonch), August 28
As India and Pakistan seek to revive the “almost dead” ties following the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks last year, the divided families are keeping a close watch on the situation that may improve in the coming months.

For the divided families here, the restoration of the ties between India and Pakistan means a lot as the governments of both the countries are likely to take many a steps, like triple-entry permit and issuance of travel permit by the deputy commissioner of the respective district, which will make their travel across to PoK through the trans-LoC Poonch-Rawlakote Road to meet their divided family members easier and less time consuming.

Presently, it takes years for a member of the divided family to get a permit to travel across to PoK to meet his separated family member who got separated from him during the Partition, 1965 and 1971 wars.

For the past more than two years, Rajive Gupta is trying hard to get a travel permit to meet his paternal aunt Manzoora Begum (69)(before separation from her parents her name was Ayodhya Devi). Rajive had applied for travel permit in January 2007 to meet his aunt, but he is yet to get the same.

“My aunt got separated from our family during the Partition. She was just seven-year-old when she wandered across to PoK from Nowshera where our ancestors used to live. Manzoora told us that after moving to PoK, she, due to the fear of getting killed by Pathans, got converted to Islam and married one Raja Raheem Dar of Ratta village in Kotli district of PoK. Since then, she is living there,” says Rajive, who runs a dhaba in the main market of Mendhar town.

“She, along with her husband, came here about a year ago, but we were not happy with the duration of their stay and wished that they would have stayed for more days. A few months ago, we heard that her condition is critical. Now I wish I would get my permit soon so that I could be with her in her last days,” he said.

Rajive adds: “I tried to track the status of my form from PoK, but the authorities there told my uncle (Manzoora’s husband) that they are yet to get my form for verification from India.

Now I am trying to locate my form here in India, but I strongly believe that like thousands of file which gather the dust in government offices, my form will also be dumped by the authorities in some office dealing with the travel permits”.

“I hope that better sense prevails on the authorities dealing with the travel permits and I pray to God that I get permission to meet my aunty. We, the divided families, are also praying for the revival of ties between India and Pakistan so that our travel across the LoC is simplified and procedure to get travel permission becomes less time consuming,” he adds.

Intelligence sources confirmed that it takes years for the divided family members wishing to travel across the LoC, to meet their separated family members, to get travel permission as it involves verification from many agencies in both the countries.

They added that already there were more than 3,000 cases of divided family members from twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch, who wish to travel across to PoK on the Poonch-Rawlakote cross-LoC Road, pending and the Pakistani Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is yet to give travel permission to them.