PoK nationals held for guiding Uri terrorists were teen school boys: report

New Delhi: The two PoK nationals apprehended by the Army on September 21 for allegedly guiding ‘four Jiash-e-Mohammed terrorists’ across the border, who subsequently conducted an attack on the Uri Army camp killing 19 soldiers, were just school children who strayed into India, a report claimed on Thursday.

According to a report in the Indian Express, the two boys were identified as Faisal Husain Awan, Ahsan Khursheed, both 16-year-old juveniles hailing from villages situated roughly an hour’s walk away from the LoC near Uri.

The duo are believed to be school friends. Awan’s brother Ghulam Mustafa Tabassum, a Lahore based doctor, claimed that the two boys were home on September 17. GPS records procured from the four slain militants indicate that they crossed over into the Indian territory on this day.

In a dossier handed over to Pakistan High Commission, New Delhi claimed that the two teenagers participated in the attack.

The Army concluded the two boys were working for the JeM based on ‘spot interrogation’ a spokesperson said.

The NIA probing the case however acknowledged that there was not much evidence to link the duo to the Uri attack. Furthermore, the attack has since been ascribed to the Laskar-e-Taiba and not JeM as initially claimed.

The two teenagers also gave varying accounts to different officials. Speaking to a woman doctor from the CRPF, the boys claimed that they had participated in the terror attack, and also described how they used an incendiary substance to burn the tents at the 12 Brigade. Awan also identified one of the four slain militants as Hafiz Ahmed, son of one Feroze, in Dharbang, west of Murree, PoK.

The two teenagers were nabbed by local villagers on September 20 before being handed over to the Army. While being roughed up, the duo claimed that they had crossed over by mistake.

Awan’s parents Zeero Begum and Gul Akbar have been devastated since they heard of their son’s arrest. “She wakes up suddenly, crying and asking us to find out how he is. She imagines what he must be going through; how he must be; what he is eating; if he is sleeping. It is very hard on her, because Faisal, being the youngest in the family, is loved the most,” his brother claimed.

Ahsan Khurshid’s mother has not spoken a word since she heard the news, he added.

Terming Awan as an ideal student, his school principal said that he had passed Class IX with a first division.

“His behaviour was exemplary,” Basharat Husain, the principal of the the Shaheen Model School in Muzaffarabad said.

The families are still struggling to figure out how the two crossed over into the Indian territory.