The Free Press Journal

Kashmiri youths travelling to Pak on visa infiltrate with terrorists

- SUMIR KAUL /

Nearly 100 Kashmiri youths, who travelled to Pakistan on valid visas for short durations, have either not returned or disappeare­d after their return in last 3 years, raising an alarm within security agencies who fear they could be possible sleeper cells of terror groups operating from across the 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 was a local who went to Pakistan in 2018 and had not returned since, officials from security agencies said. Between April 1 to 6, 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 had travelled to Pakistan on valid documents and never came back thereafter, they said.

Security agencies, along with the immigratio­n officials at Wagah border as well as at the Delhi airport, have been collecting data of Kashmiri youths who travelled on valid visa for durations ranging over 7 days over the last 3 years, the officials said.

The figures were astonishin­g and in cases it was found the youths never returned and in others they disappeare­d after their return.

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