And the Army is going to host a mega surrender ceremony and a “reunion with the families” at its Rampur brigade in Baramulla tomorrow where 24 Kashmiri militants will officially lay down arms.
This farewell-to-arms story has an interesting twist. Sources reveal that the Army has established well-knit contacts across the LoC to help the “disenchanted” and “homesick” among the thousand young Kashmiri men who had trekked across for arms training in the early ’90s, return. In fact, eight militants had surrendered in a similar manner last month in Uri.
“They (militants) have been crossing in small groups for the last few days. We had prior information that these militants wanted to surrender and we let them in,” Defence spokesman Col A K Mathur told The Indian Express. “They (militants) sent us a message that they wanted to surrender to avoid a situation where troops would mistake them for infiltrators”.
Although Col Mathur said these militants had run away from their camps, sources reveal that the Army has developed a network of its own men in PoK who are constantly helping in these surrenders. “The first contacts across were established during the earthquake when the LoC was virtually unmanned for several days,” a source privy to this operation told The Indian Express. “The men who are working for the Army in fact become guides for these militants, assuring them of a peaceful reunion with their families here. And it seems to be working”. The Army has organised a surrender ceremony at its Rampur Brigade where these 24 militants would lay down arms before Major General Ramesh Halgaly, General Officer Commanding, 19 Division. The Army has also invited parents of these militants and a reunion function will follow the surrender.
The Jammu and Kashmir Police have a list of around 1,000 Kashmiri men who had crossed over for arms training in ’90s.
“A number of them has married and settled down there now. The majority of them didn’t want to join militancy,” a senior police officer said. “This has been a huge problem for us because their parents want travel documents to go and meet them. Once these men start returning after their surrender to the army at the LoC, it will help to resolve the long-standing problem”.
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