SRINAGAR: Kashmiri youth returning from PcK and Pakistan over routes not designated by the government will not be brought under the militant rehabilitation programme, authorities have decided.
Directives have been issued to the civil and police administrations not to extend the benefits of the rehab policy to Kashmiri youth returning home via Nepal and Bangladesh.
The government has asserted that the policy would be applicable only for those who return over the Rawalakote-Poonch, Muzaffarabad-Uri, and Wagah-Amritsar routes, and through the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi.
According to sources, around 125 militants and other persons returning to the Valley from PaK and Pakistan via Nepal and Bangladesh so far would not be treated under rehabilitation programme.
These people have travelled from Karachi or Islamabad via Kathmandu or Dhaka, which is illegal according to stipulations of the rehab policy, they said.
Such individuals are being kept under strict surveillance as they could include elements who have come to create trouble disruption under the pretext of returning home, they said.
Further, the rehab policy is applicable to individuals not having serious cases in courts or police stations.
Several former militants with no cases of serious nature, and released on bail, too are being kept under close watch, police sources said.
Youth returning home from across (over designated routes) are charged only with illegal border crossing, and then released on being granted bail by courts, they said.
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