Two Pakistan-trained LeT militants from Jammu and Kashmir were arrested soon after they returned to India via the Wagah-Attari border crossing in Punjab with valid passports and visas, police said on Friday.
"Baramulla police, army and CRPF have arrested two militants who had gone to Pakistan on valid Pakistani visas to obtain arms training there for undertaking terrorist activities in the Valley.
"They had obtained passports specifically for the said purpose. These militants of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) were nabbed immediately after returning via Wagah-Attari border before they could formally join the militant ranks here in Kashmir," a police officer said, identifying them as Abdul Majeed Bhat and Mohammad Ashraf Mir, both residents of Baramulla district.
According to police, the duo, on questioning, revealed that they had undergone terrorist training in Pakistan along with large number of Pakistani boys, most of them from its restive Balochistan province and some as 10 years old.
"The said terrorist camps are located near Burma Town, Islamabad and are being run by a terrorist commander operating under code name Hanzala Adanan and Omar. Other terrorists imparting training to young boys are operating with code names Osama,Naveed and Hataf," said the officer, adding that the arrested militants have been given visas by the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.
Police also said that in the past couple of years, they have unearthed several such modules who lure young boys to Pakistan to get trained and join militancy, and several of these youth have been arrested and some of them killed in gunfights.
"On February 4, 2017, two militants namely Azharuddin and Sajad Ahmad got killed in an gunfight in Amargarh, Sopore... both had gone to Pakistan on valid visas to obtain terror training, subsequently joined militancy here and got killed.
"Suhaib Farooq Akhoon of Baramulla also visited Pakistan in August last year, acquired terrorist training in LeT terrorist camp, subsequently went underground and joined militant ranks and is currently active.
"One more militant, Abdul Rashid Bhat of Sopore was also arrested on July 17 last year by Baramulla police after he had also gone underground after obtaining training in Pakistan under similar circumstances," the police officer said.
"Parents are requested to keep watch on their wards and their prolonged absence from home should be immediately reported to police so that lives of these boys are saved," the officer added.
--IANS
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