Back home

For the families of teenagers Faisal Hussain Awan and Ahsan Khursheed, handed over to the Rangers at the Wagah border on Friday afternoon and reunited with their families, the long drive back to their homes in Azad Kashmir will no doubt be full of celebration, but also sad, possibly frightening stories. What happened to the two Grade 10 students is certainly terrifying. The two boys, out on a picnic, accidentally veered perhaps a few metres across the LoC into the Uri sector in Indian-held Kashmir on September 21, 2016. Unfortunately for them this was just days after a militant attack on an Indian army camp at Uri, which New Delhi quickly blamed on Pakistan. In a bizarre twist, the two school boys were held for months by Indian security, on allegations that they were involved in the incident – despite the absolute lack of evidence to substantiate this evidently malicious assertion against children.

Welcome though the news of their return may be, we should not let the matter rest there. India has a lot to answer for. When it became clear that the two boys had no involvement in militancy, India should have immediately released them, or at least shifted them to juvenile prison. To hold them without charge for so long is a gross violation of their human rights and needs to be condemned internationally. It is typical of how India plays the terrorism card to excuse its conduct in Kashmir and to vilify Pakistan. Naturally we are relieved the boys are home and that families wrenched apart for so long have finally been united and that the boys can soon resume disrupted lives. But this shocking violation of not just human rights but basic humanity should not be forgotten here. The Pakistan government, too, will have to explain why it didn’t do more to get these children released. At the time India was using their       Uri attack to isolate us internationally, we should have been bringing the plight of Faisal and Ahsan to the world’s attention and linking it to India’s disregard for international norms. Pakistan and India have an agreement to return individuals who accidentally stray across the long, poorly demarcated border or the even less distinct LoC. This did not happen. India needs to answer for its actions and it is the duty of the world community to ensure it is made to do so. The case of Faisal and Ahsan is yet another example of the human toll of India’s brutal occupation of Kashmir and its push against Pakistan. The two boys deserved better – from their own government, from India and from an uncaring international community.