NEW
DELHI: As many as 250 former militants from Jammu & Kashmir, who are
holed up in Pakistan, are still waiting to return to India. Most of
these are expected to return via Nepal, a route not authorized in the
Jammu & Kashmir government's 2010 rehabilitation policy for former
militants. The government has, however, prepared a list of such
militants and their return is being facilitated through the India-Nepal
border with help from Jammu & Kashmir police and Sashastra Seema
Bal, the paramilitary force that guards India-Nepal border.
To ensure that the embarrassing incident of Delhi Police Special Cell wrongly arresting former militant Liyaqat Shah is not repeated, the force has deputed its men from Jammu and Kashmir at border outposts to ensure identification of such militants and their smooth handover to Jammu & Kashmir police. Ever since the policy came into force, 241 former militants who had crossed over to PoK in the 1990s have returned and not a single one has taken the designated route. All of them have come through the Nepal border.
Proposed in 2009 by the Omar Abdullah government and given a go-ahead by the Union home ministry in 2010, the policy says only those former militants returning from Pakistan will get the benefits of the policy who come from the designated routes of Poonch-Rawalkote, Uri-Muzaffarabad (both on the line of control), Wagah border in Punjab and Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport in New Delhi. However, militants could return from these four routes only with Pakistan's permission as the two LoC routes require permits approved by authorities in PoK while the two other routes need Pakistani passports and visas.
"Pakistan is reluctant to assist in this arrangement. That is akin to officially accepting that it had harboured these people and prepared their passports. So, the returnees face mammoth difficulties in going through the official channel," a J&K Police officer said. Thus militants now fly to Nepal on a Pakistan passport on Pakistan International Airlines, said sources. Immediately after landing their passports are confiscated by Pakistani authorities and they are then left to take their families back to India on their own, the sources added. "The Jammu & Kashmir government (state CID) has validated a list of such people and shared it with the Union government (Home Ministry). The SSB, by virtue of guarding that border, is the nodal authority to receive such people coming from Nepal to JK police," a senior official said. SSB chief Arun Chaudhary, during an interaction with journalists before the 50th Raising Day celebrations of the force, refused to give details about the procedures adopted on this open border in this regard. "I can just say that this is a friendly border but we have seen in the last few years that some elements have started exploiting the frontier to carry out their nefarious designs in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. We are always alert," the SSB director general (DG) said. According to official data, the force "apprehended 21 groups of Kashmiri ex-militants returning from Pakistan — 19 groups at Sonauli in Maharajganj district of UP, one group at Jaynagar in Madhubani district of (Bihar) and another at Rupaidiha in Bahraiach district of Uttar Pradesh along the Indo-Nepal Border." The force has also decided to increase the border posts on this border to 539 by 2016, from the existing 466. Close to 3,000 additional personnel will also be deployed over a period of time to man these posts. The SSB also guards the 699-km long India-Bhutan border and it plans to increase the border posts to 195 from the present 150 during the same time period on this frontier. DG Chaudhary said there are no plans to fence the Nepal frontier as border people have relations across the land and they belong to "one stock". "We guard the borders and we also do border management as both the frontiers we guard, are old friends of India," he said. He said a number of measures are being taken to enhance the intelligence gathering and technical surveillance capabilities of the force. The SSB was raised in 1963 in the wake of the Chinese aggression and at present the force has close to 76,000 personnel in its ranks which is equivalent to 75 battalions.
To ensure that the embarrassing incident of Delhi Police Special Cell wrongly arresting former militant Liyaqat Shah is not repeated, the force has deputed its men from Jammu and Kashmir at border outposts to ensure identification of such militants and their smooth handover to Jammu & Kashmir police. Ever since the policy came into force, 241 former militants who had crossed over to PoK in the 1990s have returned and not a single one has taken the designated route. All of them have come through the Nepal border.
Proposed in 2009 by the Omar Abdullah government and given a go-ahead by the Union home ministry in 2010, the policy says only those former militants returning from Pakistan will get the benefits of the policy who come from the designated routes of Poonch-Rawalkote, Uri-Muzaffarabad (both on the line of control), Wagah border in Punjab and Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport in New Delhi. However, militants could return from these four routes only with Pakistan's permission as the two LoC routes require permits approved by authorities in PoK while the two other routes need Pakistani passports and visas.
"Pakistan is reluctant to assist in this arrangement. That is akin to officially accepting that it had harboured these people and prepared their passports. So, the returnees face mammoth difficulties in going through the official channel," a J&K Police officer said. Thus militants now fly to Nepal on a Pakistan passport on Pakistan International Airlines, said sources. Immediately after landing their passports are confiscated by Pakistani authorities and they are then left to take their families back to India on their own, the sources added. "The Jammu & Kashmir government (state CID) has validated a list of such people and shared it with the Union government (Home Ministry). The SSB, by virtue of guarding that border, is the nodal authority to receive such people coming from Nepal to JK police," a senior official said. SSB chief Arun Chaudhary, during an interaction with journalists before the 50th Raising Day celebrations of the force, refused to give details about the procedures adopted on this open border in this regard. "I can just say that this is a friendly border but we have seen in the last few years that some elements have started exploiting the frontier to carry out their nefarious designs in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. We are always alert," the SSB director general (DG) said. According to official data, the force "apprehended 21 groups of Kashmiri ex-militants returning from Pakistan — 19 groups at Sonauli in Maharajganj district of UP, one group at Jaynagar in Madhubani district of (Bihar) and another at Rupaidiha in Bahraiach district of Uttar Pradesh along the Indo-Nepal Border." The force has also decided to increase the border posts on this border to 539 by 2016, from the existing 466. Close to 3,000 additional personnel will also be deployed over a period of time to man these posts. The SSB also guards the 699-km long India-Bhutan border and it plans to increase the border posts to 195 from the present 150 during the same time period on this frontier. DG Chaudhary said there are no plans to fence the Nepal frontier as border people have relations across the land and they belong to "one stock". "We guard the borders and we also do border management as both the frontiers we guard, are old friends of India," he said. He said a number of measures are being taken to enhance the intelligence gathering and technical surveillance capabilities of the force. The SSB was raised in 1963 in the wake of the Chinese aggression and at present the force has close to 76,000 personnel in its ranks which is equivalent to 75 battalions.
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