Bilal Handoo
The much-trumpeted policy to rehabilitate Kashmiri youth who had gone to Pakistan for arms training has found no takers with the Jammu and Kashmir government revealing on Wednesday that no youth has returned through the routes announced in the policy.
The disclosure was made in the legislative assembly by the state home minister Nasir Aslam Wani, “Out of 1082 prospective returnees, on whose behalf applications forms have been received, 66 persons (some of them along with their families) have returned illegally via Nepal and other routes,” he said.
The government said it had received 1082 applications on behalf of the returnees or their families, out of which 218 cases have been recommended. However, the government maintained that no returnee has been put under arrest.
The remarks made by Wani irked the PDP lawmaker, Murtaza Khan, who accused the minister of misleading the house. “Saima, wife of Mohammad Lateef of Chadoora is in jail right now, much to the misleading facts presented by the concerned minister in the house,” Khan stated. Wani however clarified that the arrested PaK lady was held before the announcement of rehabilitation policy and was currently lodged in Pooch jail.
The routes identified for the government to enable the return of Kashmiri youth and their families under the policy were Wagah border, PCP, Attari, Salamabad, Chakandabagh and Indira Gandhi International airport, New Delhi.
