New Delhi, Jul 18: Security agencies are continuing with the interrogation of three Chinese youths who had intruded into the northern sector of Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir recently even as top officials said that they would not be deported but sent back into their territory.
Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) chief Ajay Chadha has said the trio could not be deported and the “law will take its own course”.
Sources in the Home Ministry and ITBP said that these youngsters would be pushed back into their territory after their interrogation is finished and it is established that they had strayed into Indian side by mistake and with no ulterior motives.
This is the usual legal way in such instances, the sources said.
Salamo, Abdul Khaliq and Adil Thorsong are at present in the custody of security agencies at Margo post in north of Ladakh after being detained on June 12 and had told interrogators about their dreams to enter India and earn money as they were facing acute poverty in their region.
The trio had claimed they were driven out by extreme poverty from home and wanted to come to India because they had seen it as a land of prosperity on the silver screen.
The three men, aged between 18 and 23 were nabbed inside Indian territory on June 12 near Sultanchku.
It was also not clear from where they had come as the nearest habitation across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) was in north of Karakoram range.
Authorities are working on the possibility that they could have entered through either Raki Nallah, Jeevan Nallah or north of Daulat Beig Oldie, where Indian and Chinese troops had a face-off for nearly 21 days from April 15 to May 5.
The three men also could not give a clear description of the areas used by them to come to India.
Besides this, apprehension was being expressed that the three could have been heading towards Pakistan occupied Kashmir which is barely 30 km up north of the area where they were nabbed.
The three men were carrying a big political map and two smaller versions of the document with Arabic and Yarkandi script on it.
Besides this, they were carrying improvised swords and knives, tinned food including egg powder (useful in higher region), Chinese currency of over 900 Yuan and Chinese leather jackets.
