Claim to be juvenile to escape Indian law, Lashkar-e-Taiba tells its cadres

Declare your age below 18 years if you are caught by security personnel – this is a new diktat the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror outfit sent to its cadres in Jammu and Kashmir. Details of this LeT tactic was given by arrested Mohd Naveed Jutt alias Abu Hanzala, who was subjected to age determination test as he had claimed to the interrogators that he was 17 years old, official sources said.

After sustained questioning, Jutt, whose age turned out to be 22 years, said his 'masters' across the border had instructed him to give his age as 17 years. Jutt said the LeT top brass has been telling the new recruits, who are mainly school dropouts or having criminal background, that they should behave as someone who is below 18 years so that they are tried under the Juvenile Justice Act and not normal Indian Penal Code. The maximum punishment under Juvenile Act is three years.

Jutt, a resident of Multan in Pakistan arrested by police in the third week of June in South Kashmir, said he had come along with six boys in October, 2012 through North Kashmir's Keran sector, the sources said. Son of a retired Army driver, Jutt was trained in various madrassas owned by Jamaat-ul-Dawa (JuD), a front organization for LeT. 

He said that during the training, Lashkar top brass used to look for talent and then classify them into areas where they would be operating, the sources said, adding linguistic courses were held for the Lashkar trainees who were taught Chechen, Syrian and Iraqi language.

Jutt is accused of killing many policemen in South Kashmir and carrying out sensational attack on army and polling parties and making an assassination bid on a ruling National Conference (NC) MLC from Wachi, Showkat Ganaie. After initial training, Jutt underwent "Daura-e-Sufa" (training cadre for religious indoctrination) at Maksar Aksar Camp in 2009, the sources said.