Cops to be soft on youth shunning terror
SRINAGAR/NEW DELHI: The Kashmiri youth who denounce militancy and have not been involved in violence will be spared legal action, the state’s top police officer SP Vaid said on Monday in yet another move to bring local militants to the mainstream.
For those involved in “certain incidents”, they would decide on a case to case basis, director general of police Vaid told HT on a day news of another militant returning home emerged.
“Others involved in certain incidents, we will examine their cases and then decide. We will certainly be lenient,” he said.
Police were tight-lipped about the identity of the man and the outfit he dumped.
All that Kashmir’s inspector general of police Munir Khan said was that he was from Kulgam district in south Kashmir.
“We are neither taking it as surrender nor arresting him. Everyone is free to come back.”
Later in the day, Kulgam SP Shridhar Patil said the youth was 17 and went missing a month and a half ago.
“Before he could actually join them (militants) and hold a gun in his hands, we persuaded him to come back,” Patil said. The teenager is the second local to return home in a week.
On November 16, a popular footballer, Majid Khan, who joined Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, came back to his family.
Encouraged by his return, security forces on Sunday sought to draw a distinction between local and foreign militants, urging Kashmiri boys to shun violence, promising them all help and an honourable return.
Meanwhile, ministry of home affairs officials on Monday said terror outfit Islamic State (IS) had shown no presence in the Valley so far.