Pak Hindu refugees in Delhi discuss future as eviction looms

Time of India

2 days ago

New Delhi: Pakistani Hindu refugees from various Delhi settlements, fearing eviction, held a large panchayat to discuss their future. These Sindhi Hindu families, who fled religious persecution in Pakistan and were granted Indian citizenship last year, now feel betrayed.
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They live in five camps across Delhi, including part of Majnu Ka Tila near the Yamuna floodplain.
Though no eviction notices have been issued by DDA, the community learned through the media about a recent high court ruling allowing the clearance of the Majnu Ka Tila settlement.
"Where will we go? We were running, fleeing for our lives, and India is the only nation where we, as Hindus, could find safety. Now, even if we won't find a place to live here, where are we supposed to go? We don't have much education, cannot afford a lawyer, and were living off the help of our Hindu brothers here.
Somehow, we managed to earn a living here, managed to send our children to school, to give them a life that we could never dream of.
Now, this decision of the court has come as a knife to our hearts," said Sukhnandan, pradhan of Majnu Ka Tila, who came to India in 2012 and settled on vacant land next to a gurdwara.
At the meeting, and a heated one, held at another settlement on the Yamuna floodplain near Signature Bridge, high-pitched discussions were on.
Representatives from all six settlement camps in Delhi — Majnu Ka Tila, Signature Bridge, Adarsh Nagar, Bhatti Mines, Rohini Sector 11 and Rohini Sector 25 — had gathered there to discuss future action.
They plan to meet chief minister Rekha Gupta to explore resettlement options. Last year, the community secured a temporary stay from the high court when eviction notices were first served, but the court recently upheld the DDA's eviction order.
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"The new reports say that we will be evicted from the floodplain. That's two of our camps. It does not talk about our rehabilitation. We will seek time from Delhi's CM tomorrow, if required, even hold protests," said Dharamveer Bagri, another settler at Majnu Ka Tila, who hailed from Hyderabad in Sindh, Pakistan.
Last July, days after some of them were granted citizenship, Delhi Development Authority issued the camp dwellers a notice, asking them to vacate their houses in 24 hours, pending a demolition drive scheduled for July 13 and 14.
DDA's notice stated that the land was part of the Yamuna floodplain and all encroachments on river land adjacent to the gurudwara were ordered to be cleared by the National Green Tribunal.
In an order dated May 30 by Justice Dharmesh Sharma, the court observed that it had earlier asked the Union of India, DDA, etc., to relocate and rehabilitate refugees on Yamuna floodplain. The court, however, noted that the effort bore no fruit. It also said that the court cannot undertake the exercise of framing a policy to ameliorate the plight of refugees.