Welfare organisation Tribal Research and Cultural Foundation has appealed to Gujjars and Bakerwals in Jammu and Kashmir to remain united, claiming that divisive forces are trying to create division among the communities on ethnic lines.
"We caution Gujjars and Bakerwals of Jammu and Kashmir of the attempt of some particular groups, particularly in Poonch, Rajouri districts, and Uri and Karanah Tehsils, to divide our community on small ethnic lines," TRCF secretary Javaid Rahi said at a function here today.
He appealed to the members of the communities to remain united on all fronts to give a befitting reply to the disintegrating forces. Some people in the border areas of the state are bent to segregate the vibrant Gujjar identity into two parts which is "condemnable and intolerable".
He said Gujjars and Bakerwals share same history,culture, language and racial identity. "Even all anthropological and genetic studies conducted on Gujjars-Bakerwals says that they are not a separate identities in any way," Rahi said.
Recently some reports of division among Gujjars and Bakerwals came to light, and some non-tribal groups of Poonch and Rajouri are instigating a wrong war to divide the Gujjar community which form the third largest group in Jammu and Kashmir after Kashmiris and Dogras, and constitute more than 20 per cent of the state's population, he said.
