Kashmir police on Wednesday refuted rumours rife on social media that suggest more than 60 youth have gone from different parts of the Kashmir valley amid the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Refuting these reports that are running on certain social media platforms, the Kashmir Zone police said that these reports qualify as "fake news".

"Some social media platforms are running that 60 youth have gone missing from different parts of the Kashmir valley amid the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan," the Kashmir police tweeted on Wednesday, quoting the inspector-general of police (IGP) of Kashmir. "This is totally fake news".

In the wake of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, several reports emerged in the media suggesting terrorist groups have infiltrated the Kashmir valley, raising the level of violence on the ground. Citing unnamed security sources, these reports claimed that men from the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) valley were engaged in the lightning-fast Taliban offensive that won the militants control of the war-torn country on the heels of the US exit.

These reports also stated that as many as 60 young men from Jammu and Kashmir went missing in the last few months, amid the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan. The reports, however, refused to elaborate much on the disappearances.

The Indian Army, however, had said last week that there is nothing to worry about regarding the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir in the context of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

Notably, India had, on the penultimate day of its presidency in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), issued a strong resolution on Afghanistan "demands that Afghan territory not be used to threaten or attack any country or to shelter or train terrorists, or to plan or to finance terrorist acts, and reiterates the importance of combating terrorism in Afghanistan, including those individuals and entities designated pursuant to resolution 1267 (1999), and notes the Taliban’s relevant commitments.”