Uri attack: Two Pakistani boys to be repatriated today

India releases Faisal Awan and Ahsan Khursheed

ISLAMABAD: Two Pakistani boys who were falsely accused of being involved in last year’s brazen attack on a military base in Indian occupied Kashmir (IOK) will be repatriated today (Friday) through the Wagah border in Lahore.

The teenagers were arrested days after the Sept 18, 2016 attack on a military installation in Uri area of the IOK. At that time, Indian authorities and media had claimed that the boys from Azad Jammu and Kashmir had helped in carrying out the attack in which at least 19 Indian soldiers were killed.

However, now India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) has acknowledged that no substantive evidence could be found against the boys showing their involvement in the attack. The accused – identified as Faisal Hussain Awan and Ahsan Khursheed – were released on Wednesday.

At a weekly news briefing, Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria on Thursday said Pakistan’s mission in New Delhi had been in constant touch with Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) ever since arrest of the boys.

“According to the Indian MEA, the NIA has completed investigations and not found anything against them. I have been informed that they will be repatriated tomorrow [Friday March 10, 2017] through Attari/Wagah border,” Zakaria added.

The spokesperson expressed concerns over acquittal of Swami Aseemanand – the mastermind of 2007 Samjhauta Express terrorist attack – and said that over the last few years Indian authorities had been exonerating those behind the deadly attack.

“If I recall correctly, in December 2010 Swami Aseemanand made a public confession that he was the mastermind of this attack, along with Abhinav Bharat’s head Colonal Parohit, who was a serving army officer. In that terrorist attack, mostly Pakistanis were killed,” he said.

The spokesperson said Pakistan was given assurance at the highest political level on numerous occasions that India would share investigations on the attack but nothing had been shared yet.

“We have been pursuing the case of Samjhauta Express with the Indian government and we hope that they will share the findings/investigations collected so far in the case with us and perpetrators will be brought to justice,” he added.

To a question about India’s willingness to attend annual meeting of the Indus Water Commission, the spokesperson said it seems that finally India was realising the importance of mechanism under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) for resolving water disputes related to the Indus River and its tributaries.

Following the Uri attack, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had threatened to review the IWT that governs the distribution of water of six rivers between the two rival neighbours. But the move appears to be more of rhetoric as India has now agreed to attend the annual meeting of the commission scheduled to be held in Pakistan later this month.

About the Indian defence buildup, he said the growing Indian conventional and strategic capabilities – particularly its nuclearisation of the Indian Ocean and testing of Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) with a range of more than 5,000km – were a clear indication of its global power ambition.

“This should be a source of concern for countries in the region and beyond,” Zakaria cautioned.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2017.