Youths go to Pakistan on regular visa, return after LeT training

A new phenomenon called 'legal infiltration' is causing concerns among security agencies in Jammu and Kashmir as reports emerge that youths are visiting Pakistan on regular visas which are extended to facilitate their basic training in handling explosives and weapons.

The matter came to the fore when police apprehended one person from Budgam who had ostensibly gone across the border for meeting relatives and later extended it by another two weeks during which he underwent the "daura-e-aam" (basic) training being organised by Lashker-e-Taiba terror outfit.

During interrogation, the youth, whose identity has been kept under wraps, told the investigators that there were other youths who were using the same modus operandi to get the training facility.

In the first week, a complete religious course is imparted after which assembling of assault rifles and detonating of grenades are taught.

A senior official said that Lashker adopted this method and has been targeting educated unemployed youth in the Kashmir Valley. "We have approached the immigration officials to keep a close tab on youth who extended their visas in Pakistan and the Gulf," the official said.

There have also been mushrooming of placement agencies who offer to take youths to the Gulf for better prospects and later they are taken to Pakistan on different passports where they undergo training modules like "daura-e-aam" and "daura-e-khas", in which the recruits are trained in making improvised explosives devices and carrying out sabotage.

Then the recruits are shipped back to Gulf countries from where they travel back to India and resume their normal work and wait for orders from across the border. "They do not come with any arms or explosives but the same are provided by the terror outfit through cross-Line of Control (LoC) smuggling and infiltration," the official said.

A huge dump of arms and ammunition was also recovered in Budgam which was actually meant for such recruits. "After committing heinous crimes, these youths generally mix with the crowd," the official said.

During this year, already over a dozen cases have been detected during which it has been found that Nasir Safi Mir, an absconder and considered to be the financial brain behind moderate Hurriyat Conference, had also been involved in shipment of some youths, official sources said.