Uri terror attack: Two Pakistanis arrested for helping terrorists are Class 10 students

Two Pakistanis who had been arrested for being ’terror guides’ to the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists who carried out the Uri terror attack are Class 10 students who had strayed across the Line of Control (LoC), according to a report by The Indian Express. [caption id=“attachment_3014054” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] The report said that Faisal Husain Awan, residing in Potha Jandgran near the Koomi Kote village in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and his friend Ahsan Khursheed from Khilayana Khurd in Muzzafarabad’s Hattain Bala tehsil were arrested on 21 September. Both the villages where the two accused reside are an hour’s walk away from the LoC. Awan was a science student who had graduated from Class 9 with a first division, according to Basharat Husain, the principal of Shaheen Model School. The principal also described Awan as “a model student, respectful and friendly.” More importantly, school documents provided by the principal show that both of them were 16 years old, which make them juveniles and entitles them to special protections. A PTI report in October had also observed that the four JeM terrorists, who had killed 19 soldiers in one of the the bloodiest attacks on an army camp in Uri, had used a ladder to scale the electrified fence at the LoC. Investigation carried out by the army to identify the infiltration route of the four terrorists had led it to conclude that a ladder was used near Salamabad nallah. Army officials had said that one of the four, who mounted the brazen attack in Uri, about 102 km from Srinagar, had infiltrated using the gaps along the fence near Salamabad nallah and erected a ladder on the Indian side of the fence, while the other three had a ladder on their side. The two ladders were connected like a pedestrian bridge. The sources had said it was difficult for all the four to infiltrate through the gap used by the first terrorist as each one of them was carrying heavy rucksacks filled with ammunition, weapons and eatables. It would have taken them a lot of time to cross the fence at grave risk to their lives as army teams, which routinely patrol the area, could have spotted them. After the four had infiltrated into India, the ladder, carried by the first terrorist, was handed over back to the two guides who accompanied them up to the LoC, sources had said, adding it was done to ensure there were no tell-tale signs. With inputs from PTI