Faisal Hussain Awan and Ahsan Khursheed, the two Pakistani men India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) had initially said were involved in guiding terrorists to an Indian army camp in Uri last year, were handed over to their families on Friday at the Wagah border crossing.
The NIA had freed the two men on Wednesday, clarifying that the 'suspects' had actually run away from home to avoid studies, reports said.
The Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted an NIA spokesperson as saying that Faisal Hussain Awan and Ahsan Khursheed were handed over to the Indian army’s 16 Corps headquarters in Jammu to be sent back home.
The spokesperson added that the NIA’s probe “revealed that the two suspects had crossed over to the Indian side after an altercation with their parents due to the pressure of studies”.
“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 spokesperson said.
In September last year, four heavily armed militants had stormed the Uri army base camp in held-Kashmir, killing 19 soldiers and injuring a few others.
The NIA had taken over the investigation of the case from local 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 allegedly trying to infiltrate into India.
The two were brought to the NIA headquarters for interrogation.
The NIA has claimed that militant group Lashkar-i-Taiba was behind the attack.
