By IANS,
Jammu: Pakistan’s “non-cooperation” was the only road block in return of the Kashmiri youths who were stranded in training camps in Pakistan-administered Kashmir or were living outside of it in miserable conditions, officials here said.
The state government, under a rehabilitation policy of 2009, had announced that the youths who had crossed the Line of Control (LOC) for militant training but were “willing to shun violence can come back (to Jammu and Kashmir)”.
The families of such militants were eligible to apply on their behalf to the state government, which would initiate the processes for their return after verifications, officials said.
“The state government has received 1,054 applications for return of such youths (from Pakistan-administered Kashmir),” an official said. About 550 cases have been cleared by India but “Pakistan is not cooperating and taking things forward,” the official added.
“The credentials of the person willing to come have to be checked by police, security, intelligence and other agencies. It then goes to ministry of home affairs (MHA), which after making checks forwards it to the ministry of external Affairs (MEA), which then finally takes it up with Pakistan government,” the official said.
“Pakistan will be obviously non-cooperative in this case as acceptance of this policy will amount to accepting that Pakistan is running these training camps where Kashmiri youths are being trained (as militants),” another official told IANS.
“The delaying tactics by Pakistan is the only road block in the return of the Kashmiri youths who are stranded in training camps…or are living outside in miserable condition,” the official added.
According to him, the Pakistani government, in turn, is getting passports made for the Kashmiri youths willing to return. They are sent to Nepal, where Pakistani agents destroy their passports and facilitate their travel to Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh), Delhi and then to Jammu and Kashmir.
They come through this illegal route to Jammu and Kashmir to avail the return and rehabilitation policy. “We cannot identify them as they get intermingled,” the officials noted.
“This is illegal way of returning but we hardly have means to check this,” observed the official. The government has no method to check the credentials or intentions of people coming to state from Nepal route. Many of them have married Pakistani women and have children as well.
“But we do not know how many of them will again take up guns,” the official said.
Recently, many of these youths tried to cross the LoC and come to the Indian side. Three militants along with their 16 family members tried to cross over to north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, but were pushed back.
In Poonch district of Jammu region, a former Hizbul Mujahedeen militant along with his Pakistani wife and three children managed to cross the LoC into Indian side in June this year.
The army apprehended them and handed them over to police who have registered a case against them of illegal border crossing.
Recently the army pushed back six people, including three militants owing allegiance to the Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), soon after their infiltration in Poonch.