Five 'missing' Kashmiri boys prevented from joining terrorism, handed over to their families

file photo

JAMMU: In a significant development, five 'missing' Kashmiri teenagers were reportedly prevented from joining terrorism and handed over to their respective families in Jammu and Kashmir.

These five teenagers in question were reportedly missing from some time. They had received phone calls threatening them to join the terror groups. 

News agency ANI quoted J&K Police as saying that five boys were successfully rescued after they had gone missing. The children were threatened to join terrorism on a call, it said. 

The J&K Police successfully counselled the boys and later handed them over to their parents, the ANI reported.

J&K Police: 5 boys were successfully rescued after they had gone missing. The children threatened to join militancy on a call. Police successfully counselled the boys and handed them over to the parents. #JammuAndKashmir

— ANI (@ANI) December 3, 2018

This comes after it was reported that passionate appeals by the family members of a missing Jammu and Kashmir student, who was pursuing engineering at a Noida-based university and had reportedly joined the banned Islamic State of Jammu and Kashmir (ISJK) terror outfit, returned home on Sunday afternoon.

The identity of the student was not disclosed due to security reasons. 

The Jammu and Kashmir Police, without mentioning the name of any individual, tweeted, "With the help of family and #police an individual (name withheld) has been brought back to the mainstream. Further details shall follow."

A resident of Khanyar in downtown Srinagar city, the 20-year-old showed up on social networking sites wearing a black turban and black pathan suit with ammunition pouch tied to his chest amid an Islamic State flag on his back. 

He disappeared from his university in Noida in the middle of October.

The news of his disappearance had left the family shell-shocked and they knocked every door possible to convince him to return. The police, as a goodwill gesture, had assured every possible assistance to ensure the return of their son.

Pictures of family members with folded hands splashed in local newspapers with a request for him to return home "at least to shoulder the coffin of his parents" earlier last month had motivated the young man to approach his family.

His parents made passionate appeals to the terror groups to send home their son, who was studying B.Tech at the Sharda University in Noida. 

They stated, "he is the only son in entire Sofi clan and should be allowed to join back his family."

His father was quoted in the appeal as saying "My son, you used to say heaven lies beneath the feet of parents, so come and live with us again." 

These appeals and back-channel negotiations finally yielded results when he returned to his house this afternoon. Immediately, a police team took him to an undisclosed location for providing medical help.

A senior police official rubbished the claims that he had been detained.

"We are human too. We support the parents of the young man. There is no case registered against him and he has been taken only for medical assistance required. The family members are with him," the official said.