Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 12: Bihar Police today handed over four Kashmiri militants, or former militants, their Pakistani wives and children to a team of Jammu and Kashmir Police at Madhubani district, where they had been captured on April 10 after crossing into the Indian territory from Indo-Nepal border.
Official sources confirmed to the Excelsior that a Jammu and Kashmir Police team that reached Madhubani today got the custody of all 12 persons including four militants, their three Pakistani wives and five children as Bihar Police expressed no desire to quiz them further or register a case against them.
Jammu and Kashmir Police had dispatched a police team to Madhubani the same day they were sounded by their Bihar counterparts about detention of dozen persons including four militants from Kashmir, one of whom had earlier worked with Hizbul Mujahideen supremo and United Jehad Council (UJC) chief Syed Salah-ud-Din, a native of Kashmir.
Sources said the JKP team was flown to Madhubani after a top police officer spoke to Bihar Director General of Police (DGP) Abhay Anand on telephone and sought custody of all 12 detained persons on the ground that they were returning to their homes from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) via Nepal border and a case of illegal border crossing or other, if any, would be registered against them in Kashmir.
They added that Bihar Police agreed to hand over custody of all detained persons to Kashmir Police. The hand over was completed this afternoon in Madhubani district after which JKP took transit remand of all 12 persons. They would be taken to Kashmir, sources said.
The persons, who had been detained by Shastra Seema Bal (SSB) at village Pipraun on Wednesday morning and handed over to Madhubani police in Bihar, included Mushtaq Ahmad Dar, a resident of village Udaara, Kupwara, his Pakistani wife, Amina Bibi and two children Shabir Ahmad Dar, 3 years and Ahsaan Ahmad Dar, 8 months, Firdous Ahmad, a resident of Bandipora, his Pakistani wife Sabia Bibi, a resident of Shahid Gali, Muzaffarabad (PoK) and their two children Anjal Ahmad, 4 years and Ansar Ahmad, 2 years, Parvez Ahmad of Bandipora and Nazir Ahmad of Kupwara, his Pakistani wife Sumera Bibi and a two years old son Aayan.
:The Kashmir Police had immediately established contact with Bihar Police after getting a report of the detentions to ensure that they were not formally arrested as the SSB had recovered 10 Cell phones, one Pakistani SIM card and Rs 50,000 currency from them, which was enough to make out a case against them,” sources said.
They pointed out that one of the four militants, Mushtaq Ahmad Dar once happened to be a close associate of Syed Salah-ud-Din. However, they appeared to have fallen apart as Salah-ud-Din was opposed to return plan of Dar.
According to sources, the militants, who had crossed over to Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) in late nineties, had settled there after initial spell of training. Three of them had married local girls and had children from them.
They had flown from Karachi to Kathmandu and then entered Bihar from Indo-Nepal border. However, before they could proceed further to Jammu in a train for their onward journey to Kashmir, the SSB nabbed them.
Sources said a guide had reportedly accompanied the Kashmiri militants and their family members right up to the border but didn’t enter into this side. He returned after the militants safely crossed the border.
After the State Government announced Rehabilitation Policy for the former militants returning from Pakistan and PoK without weapons from four identified routes, about 150 such persons along with their family members had come back to the State via Nepal border after taking flights from Karachi to Kathmandu.
Four legal routes for the militants to take advantage of Rehabilitation Policy included Chakan-Da-Bagh (Poonch-Rawlakote), Uri-Muzaffarabad in Kashmir, Wagah border in Amritsar district of Pakistan and Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi.
Sources said the militants, or former militants, were unable to take these routes due to presence of Pakistani Army and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) on these routes.
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