Two boys from PoK arrested for Uri attack; handed over to Pak

Under detention for nearly six months, two boys from PoK were today handed over to Pakistani authorities at the Wagah border after the NIA dropped charges of conspiracy in the Uri terror strike.

Faisal Hussain Awan and Ahsan Khursheed had been handed over to the Jammu-based 16 Corps of the army on March 8 after the probe agency came to a conclusion that the two had strayed into the Indian side after tiff with their parents due to pressure of studies.

The army's unit at Uri had detained them and questioned them at length after the September 18 attack on its camp in which 19 personnel were left dead.

The NIA had said that the evidence collected in the form of statements, technical analysis of their mobile phones, seized GPS devices and other circumstantial evidence collected by the NIA "did not reveal any linkage of the suspects with the Uri attackers".

The army had detained the two on September 23, barely days after the terror strike, and claimed that the two had allegedly acted as guides of four terrorists who carried out attack on the Uri garrison in North Kashmir.

On September 18 last year, four heavily armed militants had stormed the Uri army base camp killing 19 soldiers and injuring few others.

The NIA had taken over the investigation in the case from the state police.

The two youths were arrested by the BSF and the army in a joint operation at 'Angoor Post at Gavalata village in Uri when they were trying to infiltrate into India.

They were also brought to the NIA headquarters in Delhi for detailed interrogation.

The NIA has claimed that terror group Laskar-e-Taiba was behind the Uri attack.