The Jammu and Kashmir police today said 54 youth were arrested over the past "few months" in different parts of the valley, foiling their attempts to join militant ranks.
The arrested youth included four boys who attempted to cross the Line of Control (LoC) in Kupwara district last month, it said.
"As many as 54 youth have been arrested from different districts of Kashmir over the past few months. The arrests foiled their attempts to join militancy, thereby saving 54 families getting adversely affected by the militancy," a police spokesman said.
He said out of these, 28 youth have been arrested in Baramulla, Kupwara and Bandipora districts of north Kashmir.
Thirteen have been arrested in central Kashmir range Srinagar while equal number of youth have been arrested in south Kashmir districts of Pulwama, Anantnag, Shopian and Kulgam, the spokesman said.
On June 27, police station Kupwara received information that four boys of village Gulgam had gone missing and subsequently a general alert was sounded across the district and two teams were constituted to trace out them, the spokesman said.
During searches, he said one of the teams intercepted the boys near a 'nallah' (stream) in dense forest close to the LoC.
Identifying the boys as Shahid Ahmad Pir of Pir Mohlla, Wahed Ahmad Gojri of Deldjan and Zeeshan Ahmad Lone and Ubaid Ahmad Gojree of Tanwari villages of Gulgam, the spokesman said they were shifted to Kupwara police station.
Later, three of them were handed over to their parents while one of them, a motivator, was sent to juvenile home.
"The parents and the people of the area have hailed the efforts of the Kupwara police," the spokesman said.
He said though arms and ammunition were recovered from many of 54 arrested youth, yet some of them were handed over to their families after counselling.
"By doing so their families were saved from the adverse affects of the militancy," the spokesman said.
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