No sneaky routes, ultras now go to Pak for training on visas

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, March 19

Forget infiltration through treacherous Line of Control routes, militants are now travelling through the all-legal Wagah route on valid visas for arms training to Pakistan.

The J&K Police claim that nearly a dozen cases have recently surfaced where young boys from Kashmir have travelled to Pakistan on valid visas for arms training.

Only last month, two militants of the Lashkar-e-Toiba were arrested immediately after returning via the Wagah-Attari border before they could formally join militancy in Kashmir. The arrested militants were identified by the police as Abdul Majeed Bhat and Mohammad Ashraf Mir, both residents of north Kashmir.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Baramulla, Imtiyaz Hussain Mir said the duo were given Pakistani visas by the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi and they had undergone arms training near Burma Town, Islamabad, Pakistan.

“It is a new phenomenon and we have taken measures to stop it,” Mir added.

In the past couple of years, the police have detected several instances where boys were lured to Pakistan by militant groups to get training and join militancy. “In the past, several such boys have been arrested and some of them have also been killed in encounters,” another police officer said.

The police said one of the youths from north Kashmir who had undergone training in Pakistan and returned through the Wagah border was an active militant.

After the insurgency broke out, youths used to walk treacherous mountains along the LoC in large numbers to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir for arms training. Both infiltration and exfiltration came down after the 2003 ceasefire agreement. The militants have, however, never stopped crossing the border, but the number has been reduced due to the robust counter-infiltration grid.

Terror trail 

February 2017:  Azharuddin of Kupwara and Sajad Ahmad of Sopore got killed in an encounter in Amargarh, Sopore. Both had gone to Pakistan on valid visa for terror training

August 2017: Suhaib Farooq Akhoon of Baramulla has also visited Pakistan and acquired arms training in Lashkar camp. He is currently active.

July 2017: Abdul Rashid Bhat of Sopore was arrested last year. He also took training in Pakistan after getting a visa. 

February 2018: Two youth from north Kashmir who too arms training were arrested after returning via Wagah.