Pakistan repatriates 2 Kashmiri youth who mistakenly crossed LoC

Team Udayavani, Feb 26, 2017, 5:20 PM IST

New Delhi: In a goodwill gesture, Pakistan on Saturday repatriated two Indian men from Kashmir who had strayed across the Line of Control by mistake.

Security officials said 23-year-old Bilal Ahmed and 24-year-old Arfaz Yousuf crossed the LoC in July, 2015, and January, 2014, respectively and were stranded in Pakistan since then.

After the completion of all formalities, they were handed over to the Indian authorities. Pakistani officials presented them with gifts like clothes, sweaters, bags, shoes along with sweets.

Ahmed’s brother Mohammad Javed and Yousuf’s father Mohammad Yousuf, who were accompanying Indian officials, were teary-eyed as they hugged and kissed them.

The goodwill gesture came even as a female Pakistani intruder was shot dead and another was arrested by the BSF when they tried to infiltrate into Indian territory along the International Border in different sectors of Jammu division.

The Pakistani woman was mentally ill, Pakistani media reports said.

Rasheeda Bibi, 53, from Sialkot district’s Diawara village, was killed as she crossed the border on Thursday night after losing her way, Dawn reported.

Bibi was killed in the Pargwal sector of Akhnoor tehsil.

In April last year, Pakistan repatriated a woman namely Shakeela Bano from Chakothi-Uri crossing point.

In July, 2015, two teenaged Kashmiri boys were repatriated from Chilyana-Titwal crossing point, after they had inadvertently strayed into Pakistan.