“This man (contractor) said he needed some 10 labourers. He provided us a Sumo vehicle and promised to pay Rs 400 each,” they said.
Several poor labourers were reportedly hired by a ‘contractor’ here on Tuesday who duped them resulting in confrontation at Press Enclave where the labourers spilled the beans. The labourers demanded their ‘wages’ for staging anti-Pakistan demonstration outside UN office here to oppose the neighbouring country’s proposed move to give Gilgit-Baltistan the status of a province.
The facts came to fore after the hired protesters had argument with the contractor at Press Enclave over money distribution. The hired protestors said that they were waiting for the person at Pattan in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district to hire them for some labour work. “It is our routine to wait for someone to hire us for some labour work. We earn our livelihood by doing some manual work,” they said.
“This man (contractor) said he needed some 10 labourers. He provided us a Sumo vehicle and promised to pay Rs 400 each,” they said.
They added that the vehicle was driven directly to UN office Sonwar here where they were asked to stage protest to oppose Pakistan’s proposed move to include Gilgit as its fifth province. “He asked us to chant some slogans. He took the lead and we followed him,” they said.
However, no media was at Sonwar to cover the protest so the contractor later drove them to Press Enclave to stage protest demonstration again for media coverage.
However, before they could protest again, they asked the contractor to pay them. After brief arguments, the media men asked the labourers reasons for the exchange of words. As they began to tell media about the facts, the contractor ran away from the spot.
The hired protesters took possession of the Sumo vehicle. “We will not allow this vehicle to move till the contractor clears our payments. He is now telling us that he would pay us Rs 100 per head. But we demand Rs 500 per head as because of him we couldn’t go for work today,” they said.
After some time police appeared at the scene and the contractor re-surfaced. He refused to reveal his identity before the media. Pacifying the hired protesters, he boarded them in the Sumo and took them along in the presence of police.
The labourers told media that they have no idea what is Gilgit-Baltistan. However the contractor distributed “press release” among media persons with the title “United Jammu & Kashmir Forum (UJKF).”
