Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, June 27: Over 50 youth from Kashmir who travelled to Pakistan on visas have joined militancy over the last few years and over a dozen of them have already been killed in gun battles while few of them were arrested in the Valley.
An official said that the trend started few years back after counter-infiltration measures were tightened along the Line of Control (LoC) and ex-filtration and infiltration of militants became difficult.
Majority of them are from Shopian district of South Kashmir who travelled on valid documents to Pakistan and later got training in handling weapons and some of them returned via Attari-Wagah Border while others infiltrated through the LoC.
In April this year, security forces killed five militants in Keran sector of North Kashmir while they were trying to infiltrate into Kashmir. However, they said that these militants were unidentified but sources told Excelsior that three of them were Kashmiris who had travelled to Pakistan on visa issued by the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi in April 2018.
They were identified as Adil Hussain Mir, Umar Nazir Khan and Sajjad Ahmed Hurrah with two of them from Shopian district. The families of these militants were informed about their killing by some known persons and later they claimed the bodies but police declined to return.
Early this year, police arrested advocate Irfan Ahmad Mir who had travelled to Pakistan frequently on visa. He was arrested along with the DySP anti-hijacking Devender Singh and Hizbul Mujahideen top commander Naveed Babu for links with militancy.
In February 2018, police arrested two militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba indentifed as Abdul Majeed Bhat and Mohammad Ashraf Mir who had gone to Pakistan on a valid Pakistani visa and received arms training before returning via the Attari-Wagah border. They had obtained passports to specifically go to Pakistan for training.
In May 2018, five militants were killed in Tangdhar sector of North Kashmir and two of them were identified as Mudasir Ahmad Bhat from Kulgam and Sheeraz Ahmad Sheikh from Pulwama in South Kashmir. They had travelled to Pakistan on a valid visa and undergone arms training before infiltrating into Kashmir.
In June same year three militants killed in Machil sector and two of them Zahid Rashid Bhat of Yaripora in Kulgam and Nisar Ahmad Bhat of Shangus in Anantnag of South Kashmir had travelled on visa to Pakistan for arms training and later were trying to infiltrate into Kashmir.
In February 2017, two militants identified as Azharuddin alias Qazi and Sajad Ahmad alias Babar were killed in an encounter in Amargarh, Sopore. Both of them had gone to Pakistan on valid visa and obtained arms training.
Sources said that besides them, over 40 Kashmiri youth who had gone to Pakistan on valid visa have joined militancy. Some of them have, however, infiltrated this year with the newly formed militant outfit The Resistance Front (TRF).
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