‘OGWs provide all sorts of logistics to active militants, time to act against them’
Srinagar : After the shocking revelations about the rising graph of the Over Ground Workers (OGWs) across the State, the Security grid has decided to work out a joint strategy to deal with the new challenge so that situation doesn’t go out of hands after so much of success achieved on the anti-militancy front since past a year-and-a-half.
On Thursday, KNO carried a detailed story on the rising number of OGWs across the state, after quoting the official figures mentioned in the State Crime Gazette released by the Crime wing of the J&K police.
Even though the report states Jammu, Udhampur, Samba and Ganderbal districts have no active militants, but each districts including the above mentioned ones, though Leh and Kargil districts are two districts in the entire state where there is neither any OGW nor any active militant after Jammu district.
A top police officer told Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that there has been a focus on the OGWs in each district as they provide logistic support to militants in hiding and carrying out various attacks on security forces. “Though the primary focus was on the militant leaders and militants and the security agencies managed to achieve the set target but now the strategy will soon be framed to deal with the OGW network in the State,” he said.
He said for him, “OGWs are militants without weapons” and can be deadly than the militants as they manage travel and other logistics for the active militants. “Though the number of active militants has gone down significantly, but OGW network has shown a spurt over the past two years.
There are many reasons and one of them major factors is that there is a dearth of weapons for the left-over militants in the State,” the officer said. Another officer in the security grid said that after the killing of 1052 militants in the past three years and 125 in the current year, almost all the major militant outfits are leaderless and there is a shortage of weapons among the militant ranks.
“This is crucial because OGWs may resort to weapon snatching bids and provide weapons to active militants first and then join later themselves. In the coming days, joint strategy by police, army and the CRPF in collaboration with the intelligence agencies will be framed to deal with the growing network of OGWs,” he said, and hinted that there would be a major crackdown on the OGWs across the State.
Sources told KNO that a major crackdown was in the offing against the OGWs and that direction to the police chiefs of districts will soon be passed in this regard. “Police in each district has a list of OGWs as already pointed out in the report so it is easy to identify them and take action against them,” they said. According to the figures in the Crime Gazette, the number of OGWs in the state was ten times more than the active militants in the State.(KNO)
