Poonch, April 12
The BJP has received support from the most unexpected quarters. People from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) are using loudspeakers to make appeal to those living on the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC) to vote for “former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's party” as he helped unite separated families on both sides of Kashmir.
Separated during partition, there are many families living in villages- half on the Indian side and remaining in PoK- divide by the LoC. Vajpayee negotiated a ceasefire between Indian and Pakistani troops in November 2003 and subsequently helped unite the separated families by starting a bus service between Poonch and Rawlakote.
These families can now travel to meet each other across the LoC by seeking a permit and there is no need for a visa. The pro-BJP campaign from Pakistan was first heard during the 2008 Assembly elections. Recently the residents of villages with large number of separated families on the Pakistani side of the LoC have started requesting people on the Indian side to vote for “Vajpayee’s party”.
Villagers from Tetri Node, Madarpur, Mandhol, Hajira, Bandi Abbaspur in PoK have been using loudspeakers in mosques and madrassas to say, “Bhaio aap ko appeal hai janab Vajpayee sahib ki party ko vote dein, jinhone bicchrey
parivaron ko milaya hai” (Brothers we appeal to you to vote for honourable Vajpayee’s party as he has united many separated families).
The villagers from Pakistan, who are clearly heard on the Indian side in villages like Salhotri, Jalas, Dara Dullian, Digar, Khari Dharamsal, Karmara, Golpar, Malti, Kasan, Shahpur, Keerni and many more say that if “Vajpayee’s” party is voted to power, it will make travel for families even simpler. There are many cases where real brothers or sisters live on either side of the LOC.
Ajay Kumar, a contractor, who does catering for the bus passengers says, “Many people say that they had given up all hope to meet their relatives in this life and had thought they would now meet only in ‘jannat’(heaven)”. When one sees these people board the bus, one can only hear them blessing former Prime Minister Vajpayee, who is almost worshiped like a messiah.
A local from Poonch, Harbhajan Singh said these people were happy to meet their relatives, but even those who do not have relatives across the LoC are genuinely indebted to Vajpayee because he brokered a ceasefire. “Before November 2003, the people could not go to their fields or even perform a funeral or a burial without the fear of being hit by firing from either side. There was continuous firing from both sides, confining people to their homes.”
The Poonch - Rawlakot bus service was initially started on a monthly basis in November 2005. In 2006 during a visit of UPA president Sonia Gandhi, it was made fortnightly and just six months back it has been made weekly.
