New Delhi: India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday said it had released two teenagers from Azad Jammu and Kashmir arrested last year in connection with the attack on a military installation in Uri, Occupied Kashmir.
According to IANS, the agency said it had handed over Faisal Hussain Awan and his friend Ahsan Khursheed to Indian military authorities so that they could be sent back to their homes. In a report last month, NIA investigators admitted they could find no evidence to link the two youths to the September 18, 2016 attack, which left 18 Indian soldiers dead.
The NIA investigation has so far revealed that the two teenagers crossed the Line of Control following an argument with their parents due to pressure over studies.
The two juveniles were arrested by the Indian Army on September 21, three days after the attack which claimed the lives of 19 soldiers.
Three days later, an Army spokesperson said the two were “Pakistan-occupied Kashmir nationals who have been working for Jaish-e-Muhammad terror outfit”.