India to handover two Kashmiri boys to Pakistan today

ISLAMABAD: India will handover two Kashmiri boys to Pakistan at the Wagah border in Lahore, who were stranded to Indian occupied Kashmir and accused of being involved in an attack on a military base last year.

Matric students Faisal Awan and Ahsan will reach Pakistan today. Dr. Ghulam Mustafa, the elder brother of Faisal, has reachced Wagah border crossing to receive his younger brother. He told the media that the investigation proved that the two children were innocent.

The teenagers had crossed the Line of Control in Kashmir by mistake and the Indian security personnel arrested them with claims that the boys from Azad Jammu and Kashmir were involved in the Sept 18, 2016 attack in Uri area of the occupied Kashmir, in which at least 19 Indian soldiers were killed.

Now India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) has acknowledged that no substantive evidence could be found against the boys showing their involvement in the attack. Boys – Faisal Hussain Awan and Ahsan Khursheed – were released on Wednesday.

Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria in a briefing on Thursday said Pakistan’s mission in New Delhi had been in constant touch with Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) ever since arrest of the boys.