Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 23: Army today pushed back a Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant, who was trying to enter into the Indian territory from the Line of Control (LoC) at Digwar in Poonch sector along with his Pakistani wife and three children. The militant was pushed back on the ground that the route he was taking to return didn’t fall under four routes authorized in the Rehabilitation Policy for the ultras.
This was for the fourth time on the LoC in Poonch that the militants trying to return to their homes in the border district were not allowed to cross into this side as they were taking routes not authorized under the Rehabilitation Policy.
Official sources told the Excelsior that a couple along with their three children appeared at village Digwar Terwain ahead of fencing, about five kilometers from Poonch sector early this morning and offered themselves for surrender.
They disclosed their identity as Mohammad Javed, 31, son of Mohammad Ashraf, a resident of Hari Marhote in Surankote tehsil of Poonch district, his wife Tabassum alias Sofia, 26, a resident of Sialkot, Pakistan and three children-Zoha Javed, 5, Mohammad Saqeeb, 2 and Wasim, 7 months.
Sources said the Army personnel quizzed the militant and his wife for few minutes before pushing them back to Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) citing that they couldn’t return from Digwar, which was not a designated route under the Rehabilitation Policy of the State Government.
The militant wanted to come back to home at any cost citing worst condition of the former militants at Mang Bajri Muhajir Camp in PoK. However, he was asked to return to PoK along with his wife and children, which he did.
Sources said Javed was a top militant of the LeT outfit when he had crossed over to PoK from LoC in Poonch district in 2001 for undergoing further arms training in Lashkar camps. He stayed in the camps for sometime but was later disenchanted with the militancy and settled at Mang Bajri Muhajir Camp, where a number of former militants were putting up along with their families after marrying the PoK or Pakistani girls.
Javed has also married Tabassum in 2006 and had three children from her. He was putting up in the Muhajir Camp with his wife and children and doing manual job to earn livelihood.
Javed reportedly told security agencies that the former militants were living miserable life in Muhajir Camp as they had been totally ignored by Pakistan Army, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and militant commanders after using them. He said majority of former militants wanted to return to their homes in Jammu and Kashmir but were not being allowed by Pakistan security agencies to reach four designated points identified by the Government for return of the ultras under the Rehabilitation Policy.
Four points include Chakan-Da-Bagh on Poonch-Rawlakote route in Jammu region, Uri-Muzaffarabad route in Kashmir region, Wagah border in Amritsar district of Punjab and Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in New Delhi.
“So far no militant has returned through four authorized routes”, sources said, adding that nearly 120 militants, some of them with their family members, who have returned to their home State had mostly taken Nepal route. They reached Kathmandu from Pakistan by air and then entered into Uttar Pradesh and reached Jammu and Kashmir.
More than 1000 militants had applied for their return through their families here under the Rehabilitation Policy. Of them, a high level Screening Committee of the Government had approved 680 applications.
Sources said a total of four attempts have been made by separate militants on the LoC in Poonch district to return to their homes but Army has not allowed them on the ground that they could come back only through four designated routes under the Rehabilitation Policy.
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