Following months after the terror attack in Uri, that had claimed the lives of 19 Indian soldiers, it was reported on Wednesday that two Pakistanis who were nabbed on the charges of facilitating the attack were Class 10 students who had strayed across the LoC. The family of and principal of the school of one of them told this to the Indian Express. The MEA had earlier informed that the two men had confessed to facilitating the infiltration bid of four Jaish-e-Mohammad cadre who had carried out the Uri attack. According to the Indian express, the two arrested; Faisal Husain Awan was a resident of the Potha Jandgran near the Koomi Kote village in PoK, while Ahsan Khursheed, his school friend was from the Khilayana Khurd from Muzaffarabad’s Hattian Bala tehsil, had been arrested on September 21. Both these villages are reported to be at an hour of walking distance from the LoC near Uri. Faisal Awan’s brother, Ghulam Mustafa Tabassum, who is a Lahore based physician told IE that both the kids were at home on September 17. September 17 is the date that, according to the GPS data recovered from the terrorists by the NIA shows the militants crossing the border.

Tabassum further spoke about the issue and said that he did not want any controversy or incrimination, which is why he hadn’t contacted the media. He spoke of his helplessness in this situation and said that he does not know what to do and how to protect his younger brother who was his responsibility. He hoped that ‘someone powerful’ in India took notice of his story and sent the boys home. The Principal of the Shaheen Model School in Muzaffarabad, Bashrat Hussain also talked to IE and said that Awan was a science student who had just cleared std IX with first division marks. Hussain said that Awan was in school for 6 hours a day and was exemplary and friendly. It has to be noted that if these reports are true and both the boys are 16 years old, it makes them juveniles under the IPC, which means they would be entitled to special protections, despite their nationality. The Indian Army after arresting these two boys had said that they had been working for Jaish-e-Muhammad, although it did not mention their age.

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Awan’s brother Tabassum said that the boys had decided not to go to school on September 20 and had instead headed to the Pir Kanth shrine. He said that they might have lost their way while attempting a shortcut, ending up across the LoC. He said that the family had begun to panic when the boys had not returned by the time of maghrib namaaz. There was a similar panic reported in Ahsan Khurshid’s village, which is half an hour away from the Kaman Post that marks the Line of Control in Uri. Although such cases have been quite rare, accidental crossings across the border are not unheard off. According to Jammu and Kashmir police reports, over a dozen such cases have been reported in the last 5 years. Local residents near the Uri LoC told the IE that the two boys had initially denied any wrongdoing and had claimed that they had strayed across the LoC while being roughed-up by the villagers.