One of the 12 people of Jammu and Kashmir detained on Wednesday while crossing the Nepal border in Harlakhi denied any involvement with any terrorist outfit.

During interrogation on Thursday, they told the police that they had decided to return to their home state after coming to know about Jammu and Kashmir’s new rehabilitation policy for the people who had migrated long back.

“Several people staying in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) already returned to Jammu and Kashmir and rehabilitated,” said Mohammed Firdaus Ahmed, one of the detainees.

A Jammu and Kashmir police team arrived in Madhubani on Thursday to interrogate seven persons, who had been detained by the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) personnel near Harlakhi on the Nepal border on Wednesday.

The residents — four men, three women and their five children — of Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla district were produced before the visiting police team, which is led by the CID’s additional superintendent of police.

Ahmed told the police that they had decided to reach Baramulla through Bihar as another group that earlier tried to enter India through Uttar Pradesh’s Sunauli border was arrested and its members were branded “terrorists”.

“After we came to know about it, we decided to avoid the route,” said Ahmed, denying any involvement in militant activities. He added that they used to work in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir as labourers.

Madhubani superintendent of police Ranjeet Kumar Mishra said: “No incriminating document was seized from their possession although one of them was carrying a passport issued in Pakistan.”