A government committee, known as the GD Wadhwa committee, in 2007, had reported their number as 47,215 in 1947. The committee, set up by the state government to look into the refugees’ grievances and demands, however didn’t come up with their current population figures. The successive governments have refused to cover them under the category of permanent residents citing Section 6 of the J&K Constitution, based on the state subject notifications issued by Maharaja Hari Singh in 1927 and 1932.
According to Zafar Choudhary, an author and well-known Jammu based journalist, the Rohingya issue cropped up after the separatists and the opposition parties, including National Conference, voiced concern over the grant of nativity certificates to the West Pakistani Refugees.