Indian efforts to involve Pakistani schoolboys in Uri attack fail

KARACHI: India's efforts to deliberately involve two Pakistani teens in Uri attack, which had left 19 soldiers dead, have been foiled after its own investigating agency declared the young boys innocent.

In September 2016, unknown militants waged an attack on Indian army's brigade headquarters in Uri, Indian-occupied Kashmir (IoK), leaving 19 Indian soldiers dead. India, maintaining its tradition, had once again put the blame of Pakistan without even preliminary investigations held.

Last week, Indian National Investigation Agency chief Sharad Kumar said the Uri attack was carried out by the Lashkar-e-Taiba, not the Jaish-e-Muhammad as first claimed. He, however, declined to comment on the case of two teenagers, Ahsan Khursheed and Faisal Husain Awan, saying investigations were going on.

Now a senior NIA source has said the agency has not, so far, found any material evidence to suggest the two Pakistani teenagers - who happen to be 10th-graders - are linked to the Uri attack or other terrorist operations, the Indian Express reports.

On the other hand, the Government of Pakistan has been making efforts to secure release of the two boys.

The two school-goers, who lived in a village in Azad Kashmir located at an hour’s walk away from the Line of Control, were picked by the Indian Army after they had strayed across the border.

They were arrested on September 21, three days after the Uri.

'Pakistani mission in contact with Indian govt'

Spokesman Foreign Office Nafees Zakaria said that Pakistani mission in New Delhi was in contact with the Indian government over the matter.

Zakaria said that he doesn’t have much to say about the matter right now and investigation in this regard is underway.

He said that India benefitted from Uri attack, adding that the attack was conducted at a time when Pakistani delegation was present in United Nations conference.