Jammu, September 13: The Regional Passport Office (RPO) here has once again come under severe criticism from the people of far-flung, mostly Muslim-dominated, areas of Jammu division. They alleged the officials harassed the Muslims and adopted every possible delaying tactic in the issuance of passports.
The passport seekers from Mendhar, Poonch, today held a protest demonstration outside the office here alleging that the officials singled them out for harassment and denied passport because of their religion.
“For the past seven months, I have been visiting this office, but the officials here are adopting delaying tactics. I have completed all the documents but still they are not issuing the passport to my daughter,” said Muddasir Husain of Gursai village in Mendhar.
“My daughter has to go to Iran for higher studies. Her student visa has already arrived but she is stuck because this office is not issuing her the passport,” Husain told Greater Kashmir during the protest demonstration.
Husain said the officials were asking him to furnish a birth certificate of his daughter issued by the Municipal Corporation. “There is no Municipal Corporation in our area, so I have brought the birth certificate from the police station, but they are not entertaining it,” he said.
Leading the protesters, president Shia Federation, Ashiq Husain, said the passport office was harassing the Muslims in particular. “They treat all Muslims as militants till they prove themselves innocent. Muslims are subjected to harassment on one pretext or the other. We will not tolerate it,” he warned.
He appealed the chief minister to issue instructions to the officials to provide hassle-free arrangement to the applicants of far-off areas, particularly students who want to study abroad.
The protestors raised slogans against the regional passport officer, Jammu.
Talking to Greater Kashmir, the regional passport officer, Ashok K Magotra, said, “The applicants have not furnished all documents.”
The protesters said it was due to the presence of media and police that the officials informed them that their documents were incomplete, “Otherwise for the past seven months nobody informed us about it.”
“For the past seven months, I have been traveling more than 300 km from Poonch to Jammu for the passport,” Muddasir Husain said.
-Agencies