ATTARI: Arrest of six Pakistani youth by Border Security Force (BSF) from the Indian territory near international border in Punjab on late Friday evening set the alarm bells ringing in the security circles. Indian intel is apprehensive of infiltration bid by Pak militants into Punjab after recent arms drop in Gurdaspur district.
However, after being satisfied about their ‘innocence,’ sleuths of different security agencies and the BSF held a flag meeting with Pakistan Rangers on Saturday and shared the details of the youths and asked Rangers to take them back.
According to sources, BSF jawans deployed in the area of border outpost Pul Moran spotted suspicious movement near international border at around 5pm on Friday and challenged the intruders.
“After spotting Pakistani intruders on the Indian territory, our jawan’s challenged them, following which the intruders surrendered and they were taken into custody,” said BSF sources.
Those arrested have been identified as Mohammad Shaukat (18), Raja Abbas (19), Mohammad Arsalan (14), Mohammad Aarif (22), Mohammad Umar Farooq (21) and Mohammad Aasif (25). All of them are residents of Kyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.
BSF recovered 5 mobile phones, 9 SIM cards, 3 memory cards, identity cards, etc. from their possession.
Stating that BSF didn’t find anything incriminating from their possession, sources informed that sleuths of different intelligence agencies including police interrogated the Pakistani youth and found them inadvertent infiltrators.
Sources informed that they were apprehensive of an intrusion bid in Punjab from across the border after airdropping of arms and ammunition in Gurdaspur by drones from Pakistani side.
Notably, in the moth of December BSF had recovered 11 Austria-made hand grenades, 1 AK-47 rifle, and ammunition in the border villages of Gurdaspur, believed to have been airdropped by Pak drones.
BSF was still awaiting the reply from Pakistan Rangers at the time of filing of this report.