India releases 2 Pakistani boys upon non availability of evidence in Uri attack

India releases 2 Pakistani boys upon non availability of evidence in Uri attack

SRINAGAR/MUZAFFARABAD: India's National Investigation Agency on Wednesday released two 'Pakistani schoolboys', who were arrested last year for their alleged involvement in Uri attack, after nearly six months of investigations.

The two school-goers, identified as Faisal Hussain Awan and Ahsan Khursheed, have been given clean chit by the NIA and handed over to the Indian army's 16 Corps to send them back to Pakistan, according to an NIA press statement.

The Indian agency said it found no linkages between the two Pakistani teens and the militants killed in Uri attack.

The young men had crossed the border after an altercation with their parents on the issue of their studies, the investigation revealed.

Moreover, the evidence collected from them including their statements, technical analysis of their mobile phones and GPS devices, recovered from the possession of slain militants, did not establish their linkage to the attack which left 19 soldiers dead in September, 2016.

The two boys, 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.