Four militants 15 OGWs active in J&K’s Srinagar

Ground Report | New Delhi: Four militants 15 OGWs active; Kashmir's Inspector General of Police (IGP) Vijay Kumar said on Wednesday that four militants are still active in Srinagar and the police are trying to either arrest or eliminate them in encounters.

Four militants 15 OGWs active

Speaking at a sports event- Taekwondo Championship, Indoor Sports Hall, Polo-Ground Srinagar, IGP Kashmir. “There are still four militants active in Srinagar, which are being traced. They will either be arrested or killed in encounters."`

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a sports event in Srinagar this afternoon, Mr. Kumar said that in August last year, the presence of militants in Srinagar was zero. However, in the first week of October, Abbas Sheikh shifted from Kulgam to Srinagar and was joined by seven more militants.

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He said five militants have been killed in various encounters and three are still alive. In Srinagar also 10 to 15 OGWs are working for militants. We are after them and if they do not surrender they will be arrested or killed in an encounter, Kumar said.

Taliban's rise, A renewed threat in Kashmir

However, Lieutenant General Deepender Singh Hooda, a former military commander in northern India between 2014-2016, said that following the Taliban victory in Afghanistan, militant groups based across the border in Pakistan "will certainly try to push men into Kashmir".

Hooda said it was too early to predict whether any influx of fighters into Kashmir would "destabilize the security situation in numbers" and push the region into a military confrontation. Neighboring India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir, and both countries rule parts of the Himalayan region but claim it in full.

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Indian officials worry that Afghanistan under the Taliban could be a base for organizing Islamist militants in Kashmir, many of whom have allied with Pakistan in their struggle against New Delhi. New Delhi has called the Taliban a "proxy militant" group of Pakistan and backed Afghanistan's US-backed government before overthrowing it in August.

Taliban says it will 'raise voice for Kashmir Muslims'

Earlier Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban spokesman, recently told the BBC that the group has the right to "raise our voices for Muslims in Kashmir, India or any other country". Those who have fought against India in Kashmir are seeing new hope.

Ahmed, a former Kashmiri insurgent who directed some Afghan militants across the mountains to Kashmir in the 1990s, remembered him as a "good fighter" who "motivated and trained youth to join armed conflict".

Two decades later, Ahmed, who gave only his middle name for fear of reprisal from Indian authorities, said he hoped local militants facing an arms shortage would receive "the latest weapons" from Afghanistan. "His victory has raised a tremendous amount of hope. It is a bullet in the hand, at a time when we are not even allowed to speak openly," he said.

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