Srinagar Feb 16 :- The State Investigation Agency (SIA), a newly carved-out wing of the Jammu and Kashmir Police on Wednesday arrested ten people allegedly working as ‘overground workers’ (OGWs) of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group.
SIA having a mandate to investigate crimes connected with militancy and secessionism conducted raids overnight at various locations in the South and Central district of Kashmir, during which the arrests were made
“These raids were primarily focused on the network of JeM. Ten identified persons who were part of OGW modules and taking instructions from (JeM) commanders have been arrested,” it said, adding, “The module whose members were organised in to sub-modules, in the form of verticals, so that in the event of detection of one member the bigger network does not get compromised had been painstakingly discovered through discreet surveillance in which corroborative intelligence capable of being converted to admissible evidence in court was used to ascertain and confirm the OGW membership of the individuals. SIA said in a statement.
The “module”, the SIA said, could be connected to other modules through higher levels of JeM leadership. “Their discovery is likely as the investigation rolls out in coming days,” the SIA said.
The detected portion of the module, it said, had been active in recruiting other young persons, arranging finances, transporting weapons in south and central Kashmir besides providing other logistic support.
“In the searches, besides arrests, cell phones, SIM cards, records to show use of banking channels and even a dummy pistol were seized.” Among arrested persons, there is one at whose house four militants had been killed on 4 April 2020, it said.
“The hitherto unknown module was working towards furthering (militant) activities in south and central Kashmir,” the SIA said.
The arrested members were mostly recruiting vulnerable “school and college” going students as a few of them are students themselves, the SIA said.
They were in close connection with the regular militants of JeM outfit and had been under surveillance for quite some time, the SIA said.
The agency further said that the digital records seized is being sent to FSL for evidence analysis and the arrested persons would be presented before the NIA court in Srinagar seeking permission for custodial questioning.
“It is believed the arrests and subsequent follow up investigation would dent the upper ground network of Jaish and degrade its ability to undertake militant activities across valley”.
