Pandemonium prevailed in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly today as some opposition members, who had raised the issue of possible security threats attached with the rehabilitation policy of youths across the LoC, staged a walkout after the government's reply failed to convince them.
JKNPP member Harshdev Singh, who moved an adjournment motion in the Assembly seeking a discussion on the issue, claimed the situation was taking a serious turn due to "illegal" entry of some "erstwhile militants from Pakistan and PoK".
"In the government reply some time back, it was mentioned that 241 ex-terrorists had returned illegally during past over three years under the return and rehabilitation policy to J&K from across," Singh said in the House.
He also demanded a reply from the government on the issue after a discussion in the House.
In his response, Minister of State for Home Sajjad Ahmed Kitchloo, however, termed the March 11 reply as a "clerical mistake", and said those people were working there as labourers.
"They were working there as labourers, and it was a clerical mistake in which they were named as ex-terrorists," he said, adding that no former militant has managed to return to the Indian territory through the rehabilitation policy.
On March 11, the government had said that till February 15, some 241 ex-militants had managed to sneak through using the Nepal and other routes.
Kitchloo's remarks drew sharp criticism from the opposition members, who accused the government carrying a non-serious approach over the issue.
They charged the government with double speak over the policy, saying that while on one hand, it admits that 241 people have illegally entered into this side, on the other, it terms the case of Liyaqat Shah, who was arrested by Delhi Police, a setback to the policy.
Speaker Mubarak Gul also termed the matter as "sensitive", and sought action against those officials responsible for the mistake in the government reply.
He, however, rejected the adjournment motion, following which the agitating members staged a walkout.
