Fareeda Ghani came on the first bus from Muzaffarabad on April 7 with her son. She is originally a resident of Jamalatta locality in Srinagar [Images] city.

Her father Abdul Ghani Rentoo, who left Srinagar for Muzaffarabad in 1949, left behind huge properties in Srinagar city.

Fareeda has applied to local authorities, under whose custody all evacuee properties lie, to restore ownership rights to her.

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The properties she is laying claim to include a house in Nageen area of the city [which is now the official residence of the Kashmir University's vice-chancellor] besides large pieces of land in Rawalpora, Hyderpora and Buchwara in Srinagar.

Seven other persons have also reportedly lodged claims with the government to restore their property.

In 1981, the Jammu and Kashmir [Images] legislature passed the controversial Resettlement Bill that intended to restore the property of displaced persons if they returned permanently to the Indian side.

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There is a political dimension to this issue. People who migrated from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir to this side in 1947 and after occupied hundreds of houses belonging to the displaced persons in the Jammu city.

"Giving back ownership of the properties in Jammu would create a crisis the local administration will not be able to handle," said a political analyst.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed has gone on record saying that status of evacuee properties would not change in the wake of the free movement of people across the LOC.