Alarm after Kashmiri youth enter Pakistan

Nearly 100 Kashmiri youth, who travelled to Pakistan on valid visas for short durations, have either not come back or have disappeared after their return in last three years, raising an alarm within security agencies which fear that they could be possible sleeper cells of terror groups operating from across border.

Alarm bells rang in April last year when a group of five terrorists were killed in jungles of the border area of Handwara in North Kashmir. One of them was a local who went to Pakistan in 2018 and had not returned since, various officials from security agencies said.

Between April one to six of last year, youths hailing from Shopian, Kulgam and Anantnag districts of South Kashmir were seen as part of the infiltrating groups of terrorists and all of them had travelled to Pakistan on valid documents and never returned thereafter, they said.

Security agencies, along with the immigration officials at Wagah border as well as at the New Delhi airport, have been collecting data of Kashmiri youths who travelled on valid visa for durations ranging more than seven days over the last three years, the officials said.

The figures were astonishing and in some of the cases it was found that the youths never returned and in others they disappeared after their return, raising speculation that they could have become “sleeper cells”, waiting for instructions from masters in Pakistan’s snooping agency, ISI, or handlers in terror groups.

Kashmiri youths, who travelled to Pakistan even two years back, were called for questioning and a proper analysis of their activities after return was being carried out by security agencies, the officials said, adding some inconvenience was caused but precaution was always better than cure.