171 Hindus Arrive From Pakistan; Seeking Refugee Status

 “So as a strategy, all these families left their houses about 3 months back and kept changing their locations so as to do away with any suspicion to our masters or landlords. And on Friday, we left for India leaving all our belongings back in Pakistan,” Chetan said.

Talking about the desperation to leave Pakistan, Chetan said ”we were daily wagers there and would do the same here but this is for the sake of our self respect, religious freedom and children’s future, that made us take such an extreme.”

“Had anybody knew about the exodus, we would not have been able to leave ever and our lives would have become virtually a hell,” Chetan said.

“All of them have come on pilgrim visa as the open visa has virtually been denied to them, according to which, they are supposed to go back but none of them has come to go back,” said Sodha.

He said that we strongly demand a refugee policy for them from the government as in past 2 months about 350 migrants have come to Jodhpur, who are an addition to already existing 1.20 lakh migrants in Rajasthan.

“In the time to come, this number is set to increase further and this is high time that government take some serious stand on the issue to ensure these poor peoples’ future here,” said Sodha.