Arjun Sharma
Jammu, August 2
An overground worker (OGW) was detained under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) in Rajouri on Wednesday. He has been identified as Mohammad Altaf, a resident of Gadyog in Khawas.
5 detained in 2 months
- According to Rajouri SSP Amritpal Singh, this has been the fifth such detention in the past two months.
- With Independence Day around the corner, overground workers and hybrid terrorists are under scanner.
- Sources say two terrorists based in Pak-occupied Kashmir have been recruiting OGWs in the region to provide logistical support to the infiltrators.
Rajouri SSP Amritpal Singh said this had been the fifth such detention in the past two months. He said the preventive detentions were made to keep a check on their unlawful acts of working for terror outfits, thereby posing a grave threat to society.
With Independence Day around the corner, overground workers (OGWs) and hybrid terrorists have been under scanner. These terrorists and their helpers are guided by terror organisations operating from Pakistan-occupied J&K (PoJK).
Intelligence meeting organised in Rajouri
- The Army organised a joint intelligence and security coordination meeting in Rajouri to formulate strategies for peaceful conduct of upcoming Independence Day celebrations.
- A defence spokesman said the stakeholders of Rajouri and Poonch, including local police and intelligence agencies, attended the meeting at the Army’s Palma Garrison.
During a short span of time, the Rajouri police have arrested five hardcore OGWs from different areas of the district. These overground workers were recruited by terrorists who fled to the PoJK years ago.
Sources in the Military Intelligence said two PoJK-based terrorists — Reyaz Ahmad, alias Qasim, of Mahore tehsil in Reasi and Rafiq Nai of Mendhar in Poonch — in coordination with the Jaish-e-Mohammad and the Lashkar-e-Toiba had been recruiting OGWs in the region to provide logistical support to the infiltrators.
OGWs had played a major role in an ambush of a military truck on April 20 this year in Poonch in which five soldiers were killed. Six OGWs were arrested after the attack, who had provided shelter and weapons to the terrorists behind the attack.
In Kashmir’s Baramulla, security forces arrested two hybrid terrorists of Lashkar-e-Toiba from Azadgunj. Faisal Majeed Ganie and Nurul Kamran Ganie tried to after noticing a checkpoint, a police official said. “A pistol, a pistol magazine, four pistol rounds and a grenade have been seized. Preliminary investigations have revealed that they are affiliated with the banned terrorist organisation LeT. They had collected the arms and ammunition for carrying out terrorist activities in Baramulla town ahead of the Independence Day,” the official said. Hybrid terrorists are those who carry out attacks and then slip back into their routine lives.