A Kashmiri student who was studying engineering at a college in Dehradun has joined a militant outfit two weeks after he went missing, police said on Sunday. “He has joined the Hizbul Mujahideen outfit,” said Kulgam superintendent of police Harmeet Singh.

Shoaib Ahmed Lone , 21, was a BTech (IT) student at Dehradun’s Alpine Institute of Management and Technology (AIMT). He left Dehradun on September 20 saying he had a flight for Srinagar from Chandigarh, but never reached home.

His family members came to know about his joining the militant outfit from photographs on social media. Locals said that Lone was raised by his mother after his father, a militant, was killed in the early nineties. The SP also confirmed the fact.

AIMT director SK Chauhan said, “We came to know about his joining militancy after officials from security agencies inquired about him”. Chauhan said after sitting for his fourth semester examination in June, Lone left for home and was supposed to return to college in August. “When we enquired about him at his house, they said his mother was ill due to which he couldn’t return”.

“However, on September 19, he returned to the institute but left within a day saying his mother is seriously ill and he has a flight from Chandigarh for Srinagar...”

Lone’s mother, who lives in Bumrath village in Kulgam, has made a passionate video appealing him to return. “I am Shoaib’s mother. Besides God nobody is there for me. I plead that if he is with any Tanzeem (organisation) please send him home... He is innocent, he made a mistake. He should come back... I will take poison. Then he is free to do anything,” she said in the video.