NEW DELHI, Mar 26: In a bid to streamline the surrender of Kashmiri youths from Nepal, the Government is likely to deploy Jammu and Kashmir Police personnel along with Sashastra Seema Bal, a para-military force, along Indo-Nepal border.
The Union Home Ministry revived its year-old proposal of deploying the State police personnel to identify the people who want to surrender after the row over the arrest of Syed Liyaqat Shah who has been arrested by Delhi Police on suspicion of being a Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist while Jammu and Kashmir Police claimed he was on his way to surrender, official sources said.
A high-level meeting chaired by Union Home Secretary R K Singh here decided that there was a need to institutionalise the Nepal route for surrendering of Kashmiri youths who had crossed over to Pakistan-ouccpied-Kashmir in 1990s, the sources said.
These men will assist the SSB in identifying the Kashmiri youth who have been using Nepal as an alternative route to enter into the Valley, official sources said today.
The J&K Police would then escort to Kashmir all former militants who enter into India through the Nepal border which became an entry route after the State Government had announced a rehabilitation policy in 2010 which is meant for youths who had crossed between 1989 and 2009.
240 youth have crossed over in the last one year under the special policy.
The personnel are likely to be deployed at 15 points used by people from India and Nepal for cross-border movement, the sources said.
Under the policy, the parents of the youth apply to the police chiefs of their respective districts certifying that ‘their wards want to return and live a normal life’. The district police chiefs scrutinize the applications and then issue orders after clearance from various agencies concerned.
While the Government had identified four entry points – Poonch-Rawalakote (Poonch), Uri-Muzaffarabad (Uri), Wagah (Punjab) and Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, the same did not succeed and Nepal emerged as an alternative route for surrenders. (PTI)
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