The police has rescued eight minor and teen-aged boys and foiled their attempt to join the terrorist ranks in Kupwara near the Line of Control (LoC) in the Kashmir valley. Four minor boys were among those saved from becoming terrorists.

These boys in the age group of 16 to 19 fled from their homes when they were motivated by the Over Ground workers (OGWs) of terrorist outfits to join their ranks. However, the Jammu and Kashmir police intercepted these boys and after proper counseling handed them back to their parents.

While the army and other central security forces have geared up operations to eliminate the terrorists in the valley, the terror organizations have also reportedly stepped up recruitment of local Kashmiri boys in their ranks. More than 100 local boys had reportedly joined terrorism during the past one year.

The intelligence set up of the state police was keeping an eye on attempts of fresh recruitment and had last month rescued ten boys before they joined terrorism.

Police said that the Kupwar police station foiled the plans of four minor boys of village Gulgam to join terror groups when a police party deputed for the purpose near LOC intercepted them.

Timely intervention of the district police Kupwara last week, four more youth were prevented from joining militant groups. They have been identified as Hilal Ahmad Fafoo (18 years),  Firdous Ahmad Bhat (19 years) both of Bumhama Kupwara area, Touseef Ahmad Shah (16 years) and Ahteram-ul-Haq Shah (16 years) both of Shatmuqam Lolab village.

During the swift operation of police, two boys from Shatmuqam Lolab were intercepted at Pulwama area while they were heading toward Tral and the other two boys hailing from Bumhama were intercepted at Vodhpora area who were also planning to move toward Shopian  area where the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and Lashkar-e-Tayiba (LeT) are active.

During the course of investigation, all these boys confessed that they were going to join the terror ranks as they are being reprimanded by their parents owing to various reasons including poor in studies besides they also fed up with life style at home due to poverty.