The body of a PoK resident was handed over on Monday amid conflicting claims over whether he was a militant sent by Pakistan or a mental patient who had wandered across the Line of Control.

The army was quoted as saying this was the first instance in recent memory of Pakistan accepting the body of a “terrorist”.

Army officers said Tabarak Hussain, 32, had confessed to being sent by a Pakistani colonel from an “intelligence agency” to carry out a suicide attack on an Indian army post. According to the army, an injured Tabarak was captured on August 21 near the LoC in the Nowshera sector, and died on Saturday at the army hospital in Rajouri after suffering a cardiac arrest.

Officials said he had had surgery earlier, with soldiers donating three units of blood to try and save his life. But Tabarak’s family at Sabzkot village in Kotli, PoK, told the local media that the youth was mentally ill and had accidentally crossed over to the Indian side. Pakistani media claimed he had been killed in custody. The civilian administration returned the body to Pakistan at the Chakan Da Bagh crossing after the army hospital handed it over to them.

Manmeet Kour, a government doctor in Rajouri who accompanied the body to the border, told reporters: “We got a call and were told (by higher-ups) there was a dead body and perhaps the man had accidentally crossed over…. At 11.06am, we returned the body.”The defence spokesperson, Lt Colonel Devinder Anand, told The Telegraph that Tabarak was a militant.On August 24, the army’s 80 Infantry Brigade commander, Brigadier Kapil Rana, had said Tabarak had confessed that there were two others with him but they had fled back after the trio were intercepted on the LoC.

According to Rana, Tabarak had revealed that a Pakistani colonel, Yunus Chaudhry, had sent him for the suicide attack and paid him Rs 30,000 (in Pakistani currency).Tabarak’s father Abdul Malik told the Pakistani media that his son had been a mental patient for years and denied he was a militant. The family released videos purportedly showing Tabarak in chains at his home.Malik said Tabarak and his younger brother Haroon Ali had inadvertently crossed the LoC in 2016 too and had been arrested by the Indian army. He said Tabarak was sent back home after 18 months and Haroon after 26 months.