OGW Played Major Role During Sunday's Attack In Jammu And Kashmir: Intel Agencies

A senior security official said that almost all the terrorist organisations use OGW to conduct such kind of anti-India activities.

New Delhi:Security agencies probing the Ganderbal terror attack of Jammu and Kashmir have found the involvement of over-ground workers (OGW) of terrorist organisations who played a major role during Sunday’s attack.

Accordingly, the security agencies have chalked out strategies to identify those OGWs. "Inputs and investigation pointed out the involvement of OGW in the terror attack," said a senior official from an investigative agency.

As many as seven people including six construction workers and one doctor were killed when terrorists sprayed bullets at a nearby camp of the construction site on Sunday evening. Following the dastardly terror attack, India’s premier anti-terror agency, NIA has launched an investigation to find out the larger conspiracy behind it.

The Resistance Front (TRF), an offshoot of Pakistan-backed Lashkar-e-Toiba claimed responsibility for the attack. A statement issued by the TRF claimed, "The attack targeted a construction site where a billion-dollar tunnel project, primarily intended for military transportation, is underway…we are closely monitoring several similar projects. We regret the collateral damage to local civilians."

"The State actors from across the border will always try to create disturbance when we initiate any projects along this western frontier. In this case too, they will try to conduct this kind of cowardly act," the official said on condition of anonymity.

Referring to the issue of OGW, the official reiterated that it’s a serious issue and security agencies are trying their best to handle such factors.

"Almost all the terrorist organisations make use of OGW to conduct such kind of anti-India activities. Although it's hard to find such overground workers, we have intensified inter-agency coordination especially with the local intelligence agencies to identify them," the official said.

On several previous occasions, the NIA and other security agencies have arrested several OGWs from J&K. Apart from providing logistic support, the OGWs also conduct surveys of targeted areas for the terrorist organisation.

"We have shared some credentials with other intelligence agencies so that the OGWs involved in the Ganderbal attack can be arrested at the earliest,” the official added.

The Z-Morh tunnel at Ganderbal, where seven persons have been killed, is a strategic infra project on the Srinagar-Sonamarg highway. This was the first such attack on a major infrastructure project in Jammu and Kashmir in the recent past.