More than half-a-dozen people, who had returned from PoK under the rehabilitation policy, were today making rounds of the media offices here, seeking to highlight their plight.
"We thought that we will be able to lead a normal life once we return home but that dream has now turned sour," Mohammad Lateef Peer, who has come back with a Pakistani wife and their son, told reporters here.
Peer went to PoK for arms training in the early days of militancy but instead of joining the militant ranks in Kashmir, took up a job as cab driver in Pakistani port city of Karachi.
The former militant said his efforts to get a job or start any business meets a dead end as everything depends on the character certificate issued by police.
Peer added that police officials have denied him the certificate which can prove his identity.
The other former militants accompanying Peer had similar tales to tell.
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More than 150 youth, who had crossed the Line of Control for arms training but did not join militancy, have returned to Kashmir through various channels to avail the benefit of rehabilitation policy.
The officials said that these youth will have to follow the procedure, which includes facing the courts in the cases registered against them.
The state will take a lenient view in their cases before the court but the law of the land has to be respected, they said.