Over 100 militants and Over Ground Workers (OWGs) are on the radar of the Government forces which will soon launch an operation against them in Jammu Kashmir, sources in the security grid said on Tuesday, IANS reported Tuesday.
According to sources, these ultras are hiding in the villages and forest areas in South Kashmir and only come out to execute an attack on the security forces or targeted civilians. The recce is mostly done by the OGWs, they added.
The security officials deployed in Kashmir Valley further said that despite the fact that a large number of ultras were killed in the operation last year, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Al-Badr and Hizbul Mujahideen have been sending more terrorists in the Valley.
“To prevent local youths from joining militant raks is also a major challenge for the security forces,” the officials said.
They also said that last year, the security grid in Kashmir Valley made robust counterattacks and drones were used to oversee the areas, but identifying militants in the forest is still a challenge for them.
The intelligence agencies have identified ‘some locations’ near Srinagar and Baramulla districts and a coordinated operation against these militants are being planned at the earliest.
The J&K Police’s Special Operation Group will be leading the operation along with central security forces.
According to the messages intercepted by the intelligence agencies, Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) officials are annoyed with the militants in J-K for not doing ‘something big’ and forcing them to execute a major attack.
Recently, Jammu Kashmir Police recovered a cache of weapons possibly dropped from a drone along the International Border in RS Pura sector after which a massive search operation was launched by the SOG of J K Police.
Two magazines, 70 cartridges, one pistol, three detonators, three remotely controlled IEDs, three bottles of explosives, a bundle of cortex wire, two-timer IEDs and six grenades were recovered from Treva village in Arnia sector.