On the day Amit Shah took the charge of Home Ministry, 5 youths of Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir, who were formerly associated with different terror have shunned the path of violence and returned to their families, according to a police report.

The Kulgam police said, “5 youths from different terror outfits have given up the arms and returned back to their families after persuasive efforts by the families and police”.

The police have refrained from revealing the identities of the surrendered youths for security reasons.

Scores of militants have shed the path of terrorism and surrendered since 2017 when the police had announced a new surrender proposal for the local militants to surrender even during an ongoing encounter.

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The surrender and rehabilitation policy was first introduced in the valley on the Independence day in 1995. The policy was designed on the lines of the similar rehabilitation program initiated for the Naxalites.

Earlier, the surrender and rehabilitation policy was limited to those who crossed the Line of Control into Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in the early 1990s and were stuck there. But the policy didn’t provide the intended benefits. The new surrender policy is contemplating clause of “passports and jobs to any local youth who gives up the gun” and “support for his full assimilation into society”.