Arms recovered in Sopore. (Express Photo by Shuaib Masoodi) Arms recovered in Sopore. (Express Photo by Shuaib Masoodi)

THE JAMMU and Kashmir police on Thursday persuaded a militant to surrender after making him speak with his father and a few village elders of Tujjar village in Sopore. The police said he is a local youth, and was hiding in one villager’s house.

This comes weeks after Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti called upon the police to try and bring back missing youths instead of killing them in encounters. The police said Umar Khalid Mir, alias Sameer (24), had joined Lashkar-e-Toiba in May and crossed over to the LoC for training. He returned to the Valley last month. Police said an AK rifle, three magazines, a wireless set, two grenades, one pouch and matrix sheet was recovered.

“As we evacuated civilians, one villager told us that a militant, who is a local, was hiding in his house,” Sopore SP Harmeet Singh Mehta said. “I told the villager to ask the militant to come out and (assured) that he will not be harmed. The militant refused. I spoke to him over the phone, and he told me to call his father.’’

Mehta said that some village elders and the militant’s father reached there soon and went in. Soon, the militant came out and surrendered. “Everybody has a right to live. We gave the militant a chance which he accepted,” he said, adding that it took five hours for the police to pursuade Mir to surrender. He was subsequently arrested.

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