J A M M U   &   K A S H M I R

Police officials told to investigate missing youths’ cases
Our Correspondent

Jammu, December 3
Following uproar of people over increase in the cases of missing youths in Jammu and Kashmir the police authorities have asked each police station in charge to investigate the matter and submit a detailed report.

Police officials in every police station have been directed to identify each case and find out whether the youths stated to be missing have joined militant groups or crossed over to Pakistan or eliminated during operations launched by the security forces.

Official sources said there were about 200 youths missing in the Kashmir valley during the past several years. However, unofficial sources said more than 550 boys had disappeared in mystericus circumstances and out of these 150 belonged to the Ganderbal-Kangan belt in north Kashmir.

Police authorities said preliminary investigations had revealed that a majority of the boys stated to be missing had crossed over to Pakistan and the occupied Kashmir and others were activists of various rebel groups.

Eyewitness accounts from across the border said that more than 350 boys from various areas of Jammu and Kashmir were staying in the Mazaffarabad area, capital of the Pakistan occupied Kashmir. Most of these boys had set up small business ventures.