- Indian Army claims arrest of a 12-year-old boy near LoC ‘inside IHK’s Rajouri district’
The Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) government on Saturday rejected Indian claims that a 12-year-old boy had crossed over into the Rajouri district of the India-held Kashmir (IHK) for the purpose of ‘spying.’
A 12-year-old boy from Azad Jammu Kashmir has been arrested by the Indian Army after he crossed over into the Indian-held Kashmir along the Line of Control in Rajouri district, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency quoted Indian Army sources as saying.
“A patrol of the Indian Army along the Line of Control apprehended a 12-year-old ‘intruder’ from Pakistani side of Kashmir (AJK) who had crossed over to this side of LoC late last evening in Nowshera sector of Rajouri district,” the news agency reported.
Quoting the unidentified Indian Army officials, the PTI reported that the boy named Ashfaq Ali Chauhan, who is the son of a retired army soldier from AJK, was found moving ‘suspiciously’ near the LoC. On being challenged by the army’s patrol party, the boy immediately surrendered, it said.
“It is suspected that the boy was sent by ‘terrorists’ in connivance with the Pakistan Army to probe routes for infiltration across the Line of Control,” the Indian Army claimed, confirming that the boy would be handed over to the police by the army for further investigation.
The Nowshera sector of Rajouri district faces the Samahni sector in Bhimber district of Azad Jammu Kashmir. The local AJK police so far had not received any report or complaint from any family about the disappearance of a 12-year old.
In Muzaffarabad, Senior Minister Tariq Farooq told reporters that the Indian claim was simply ridiculous as in a region where inadvertent crossings across the unmarked Line of Control are a regular occurrence. “It’s ironic that Indian authorities are using inadvertent crossings for further vitiating the already tense atmosphere in the region,” he said.
The senior minister said that even if the child had crossed over, it was not something unusual because residents along the LoC, from young children to adults, often strayed across the divide while herding cattle, picking firewood or medicinal plants. He said that inadvertent crossings were a chronic problem in the divided state, and authorities from both the sides had decided a while ago that such crossings would be repatriated to their respective sides at the earliest.
In January, Pakistan had also handed over to Indian officials one of their soldiers who had crossed the LoC on the same night India claimed they had carried out a ‘surgical strike’ in AJK. The authorities had rubbished that claim, saying the soldier had crossed over because he was fed up with the way his commanders treated him.