MUZAFFARABAD: The Indian army on Wednesday arrested three young residents of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) while they were catching fish in a water channel that serves as the Line of Control (LoC) in a Poonch district village, an official said.

Arbab Rahim, 13, his sibling Umair Rahim, 11, and Daniyal Malick, 17, had gone to Rangar Nullah in the Taroti area for fishing when six to seven Indian soldiers arrived from across the channel and whisked them away, said Syed Tassawar Kazmi, assistant commissioner of Abbaspur, of which Taroti is a revenue village.

Meanwhile, India’s UNI news agency reported that the Indian army had arrested “four boys” from AJK, claiming they might have inadvertently crossed over to their side of the LoC in Poonch district.

According to the assistant commissioner, Mohammad Saad, 16, a relative of Daniyal from the neighbouring Haveli district had also accompanied the three boys but he fled when the Indian soldiers arrived from across the channel.

In December last year, two teenage sisters from Abbaspur who had strayed into India-held Kashmir were repatriated by the Indian authorities the following day, but a mentally unstable person, belonging to Haveli district, who strayed across the LoC has not been repatriated by the Indian authorities.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2021