They say they were subjected to humiliation by the residents and authorities in Pakistan. And it became unbearable when the “humiliation passed on to their female members”. “Females in the families had to face a lot of problems and so we had to move to India,” says Vershi.

Vershi’s and five other families started their migration from Pakistan to the Indian border and then surrendered before the Border Security Force (BSF) in Bhuj, which handed them over to the Joint Interrogation Center. During migration, Vershi lost one of his daughters due to want of drinking water.

“We told them that either keep us in India or kill us,” said Raniben, Vershi’s wife. The rest of the family members chose to remain silent.

Meanwhile, news of the detention of the six families spread and a group of Koli community, Shree Anjar Shaher Koli (Adivasi) Samaj Seva Sangh, took up their issue as all the refugees belonged to the Koli community. “Initially, they were kept under ‘house arrest’ and later allowed to live in an area after a landlord showed readiness to hire them as labourers in his farm,” said the president of the Koli group, Bachubhai Surani.

“However, later the police department ordered that these families cannot live in the border districts. So, we decided to shift them to Sadla village of Surendranagar district where the Koli community is in large numbers,” he said.

Surani said the traditional family records of the community in the district very clearly show that all the refugees had roots in the district before Partition. And this is reflected in the fact that Vershi and others have married off their sons and daughters to local the Koli community members. Now, Surani and other leaders of the Koli group are helping the refugees to get Indian citizenship. And the correspondence in this regard is on with the Union Home Ministry.

... contd.