They were forced to leave their homes not just because terror was closing in on them. For some, it struck at their own homes. Many of the migrated families have traumatic tales of militant brutality. For instance, Amar Nath Kattal along with his family fled Puneja village in Doda following the killing of his 18-year-old son, Manjit Singh, by militants in 1994. Swaroop Krishan left Bhalesa and sought refuge in Jammu after his family was completely wiped out by militants.

Memories of nightmares came back to them with intimations of an insecure future last month when 25 people were killed by Kashmiri militants. The killing of wedding guests at Chapnari, a remote village in Doda, is likely to fuel anotherexodus of frightened villagers from the district. And the migration of people from the upper reaches of the district has once again brought to the fore the pathetic condition of those who had already left their homes behind.

Though the migration from Doda, which has been swarming with militants, has been going on consistently since 1992, the Government, so far, has turned a blind eye to their problems. Already, 1,100 families have left behind their ancestral homes to live in sheer penury on the outskirts of the Jammu city alone. Ironically, some of them have even sought refuge in Udhampur district, which also has been targeted by the militants.

The homeless are putting up in make-shift huts without any aid from the Government as also without the migrant status unlike the Kashmiri Pandits, who shifted en masse to Jammu and other parts of the country following the eruption of militancy.

Battered by militants and the government apathy, the migrants have now decided to voice their concern at Jantar Mantarin New Delhi. ``It is an irony that when the Government should have taken the initiative, we have to traverse such a long distance to make our pleas heard,'' said Dilip Sharma, president of the Zila Doda Migrant Welfare Committee.

Despite their struggle for migrant status, the Government is yet to acknowledge their existence in concrete terms. Relief Commissioner Preet Pal Singh Betab told The Indian Express that his department cannot meet the demands of the swelling refugees. ``Any decision in this direction has to be taken by the Government,'' he said.

He, however, said that around 10,000 kanal of land had been identified for the Doda migrants. It was only on the intervention of the court that of the 1,100 migrated families, 56 families were put on the relief list of the department. Sharma said despite the court's interim order that the migrant families should be given relief after verification and their cases expedited, the government has preferred to procrastinate.

``All efforts reach nowhere whenafter rigorous paper work, your claim of being a migrant is stated to be false,'' said a piqued Ramesh Krishan of Prem Nagar village in Doda.

Almost all the political parties have preferred not to get involved in the issue and have only provided lip service to make short-term political gains.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, which has fought for the Kashmiri Pandits, has cold-shouldered the Doda migrants' issue.

Their struggle with life goes on in Jammu and around. When the voices of protests die down, they are forgotten by the authorities. The Doda migrants come back to the news columns and to the eyes of the Government, only when the militants strike again.