The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Pak boys released: ‘Feels great to return home after such a long time’
Night before in UP: 3 moods — hope, anger and nostalgia
OVER FIVE months after they were arrested for their alleged involvement in the attack on an army camp in Uri, two Pakistani teenagers were handed over to the Pakistani authorities at the Wagah border on Friday.
Faisal Husain Awan, a resident of Potha Jandgran near the village of Koomi Kote in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and his schoolfriend Ahsan Khursheed, from Khilayana Khurd in Muzaffarabad’s Hattian Bala tehsil, were arrested by the Indian Army on September 21, three days after the Uri attack which claimed the lives of 19 soldiers.
Earlier this week, the National Investigation Agency informed a court that it had no evidence to prosecute them.
The Indian Express had, in December, first published evidence suggesting the two were Class X students at the Shaheen Model School in Muzaffarabad who had accidentally strayed across the Line of Control, and were not terrorists.
“We are happy. It always feels great when one returns home after such a long time. We are very happy,” said Khursheed, before he crossed the border Friday. The two boys waited for about an hour for the paperwork to be completed, before being received by the Pakistani authorities on the other side.
A PTI report quoted Awan’s father as saying, “I am extremely happy to see my son among us. I am thankful to the governments of Pakistan and India for the safe release of my son.” He said the families of both the boys had suffered extreme mental pain after they were arrested in India.
Awan’s brother, Abdul Mustafa, said Awan would now go back to school and continue his studies. “At times we lost hope of seeing Awan among us. We are thankful to God, both governments and the media,” he said, according to the PTI report.
Days after their arrest, an INSIDE THE sprawling courtyard of the SP office at the bazaar in Varanasi, Ramkumar Yadav is busy instilling hope among demoralised cadre. “I am telling you, we are forming the government. Don’t listen to the rubbish on TV. You worry about arranging for the band-baja and sweets tomorrow,” he shouts at a worker over the phone.
Disconnecting the call, he launches into a long tirade about the “sold-out media”, which is “ready to buy every lie that (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi throws at the public”. He alleges that the exit polls, most of which have given the edge to the BJP in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, are toeing the saffron party’s line and that all will be proved wrong on Saturday.
“Tell me, why don’t you show the great work that (Chief Minister) Akhilesh Yadav has done across the state? You think people are stupid that they will fall for speeches? In 2012, we didn’t think we would win, because we hadn’t worked. But we won by a landslide. This time, our work is there for all to see. At least in Varanasi, I can say we are
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