Hizbul militant surrenders with family in Kashmir

JAMMU - A Hizbul Mujahideen militant has returned from Pakistan- administered Kashmir and surrendered at the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district along with his family, saying life was becoming increasingly difficult across the border, police sources said.

Liyakat, of Surankote area of Poonch district, surrendered before the Indian Army at the Gotrian post at the LoC Saturday evening. He also handed over his AK-47 assault rifle and some ammunition.

He was accompanied by his wife, Khalida, whom he had married when he had first returned from Pakistan-administered Kashmir in 2000, and three children.

The army handed over the militant and his family to the police.

He had first gone to the other side in 1999, returned in 2000, and after staying on in Jammu and Kashmir for two years, went back along with Khalida in 2001, police said.

Police sources disclosed that Liyakat revealed that the life for Kashmiri militants was becoming increasingly difficult across the LoC.

The sources quoted him as having told the interrogators that Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officials were regularly visiting the training camps and exhorting them to cross over to the Indian side and step up subversive activities.