New Delhi: Days after he joined militant outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba and was spotted in pictures on social media holding an assault rifle, young football player Majid Khan has surrendered in Kashmir.

On Thursday night, Khan, 22, walked into a security camp in Anantnag district of Kashmir and turned himself in.

Confirming the development, senior police officer Imtiyaz Hussain tweeted this morning, “Al Hamdullilah (By the Grace of God), he is back. His mother’s prayers have been answered. Hope and pray all the boys up in arms be back to their mothers. Let peace prevail.”

Videos of Khan’s mother Ashiya Begum’s appeals were widely circulated on social media last week. Thousands across the country had appealed to Khan to return home.

“Comeback Majid. Come back to your mother please. I am waiting for you. I want you to return. I want you to play football again. I will die if you do not come back,” Ashiya said in the video.

Ashiya, 50, reportedly stopped eating after her son suddenly vanished last Thursday.

On Wednesday, Khan’s father Irshad Ahmad Khan, 59, suffered a mild heart attack after someone misinformed him that his son was killed in an encounter in Kulgam district.

After he realised his son was alive, Khan too appealed to his son through a video requesting him to come back.

“See your mother is heart-broken. She cannot cope with this tragedy. I am 59 and getting old. I don’t have the courage to see anything bad happening to you. All I can do is to pray to Allah to return you to us. You are not just my son, but a friend also. I have brought you up like that. I don’t understand why you did his,” Khan had said on Thursday.

A goalkeeper for his local team in Anantnag, Khan had joined Lashkar apparently after his close friend Yawar Nasir was killed in an encounter in August.

Reacting to the development, Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Chief Minister (CM) Mehbooba Mufti said “a mothers love prevailed.”

“A mother’s impassioned appeal helped in getting Majid, an aspiring footballer back home. Every time a youngster resorts to violence, it is his family which suffers the most,” she told media.

Mufti asked police and security forces to exhibit restraint and ensure boys, who had picked up guns, were not killed.

Former J&K CM Omar Abdullah said he was happy as it was a “very positive development.”

“I am happy that Majid Khan is back with his family. Hope he can go back to leading a normal life and not be harassed,” Abdullah said.

State Inspector General of Police (IGP) Munir Khan told Gulf News he was delighted at Khan’s return and wanted all young boys like him to shun violence and come back to their families.