MUZAFFARABAD, July 21: Pakistan on Friday handed over two teenage Kashmiri boys to India at the Line of Control in the southern Poonch district.
Mohammad Shafi, 15, son of Habibullah, and Shah Jehan, 16, son of Ghulam Rasool, had strayed into the AJK territory from the Forward Kahuta sector of the Bagh district three days ago, and they had been taken into protective custody by authorities, officials told Dawn.
Pakistani officials had confirmed their presence in the AJK territory after their Indian counterparts had contacted them and it had been decided that they would be sent back from the Tetrinote-Chakan da Bagh crossing point, they said.
Tetrinote-Chakan da Bagh is one of the five points opened by India and Pakistan along the LoC after last year’s earthquake to facilitate divided Kashmiri families.
“The boys were handed over to Indian authorities at about 12 noon,” Chaudhry Guftar Ahmad, assistant commissioner Hajira, Poonch district, told Dawn by telephone.
One other civilian and two military officials were present on the AJK side of the LoC when the boys, students of grade 8, were handed over to the Indian officials. Two Pakistan-based officials of the United Nations Military Observers Group for India and Pakistan were also present.
