ISI directing OGWs to join mainstream political parties in J&K, officials claim

Officials have alleged that Pakistan's ISI is encouraging Over Ground Workers in Jammu and Kashmir to join mainstream political parties while attempting to revive dormant terror outfits. Security agencies are closely monitoring the developments and countering radicalisation efforts in the region

Srinagar: In a move aimed at evading security crackdowns and investigations into terror incidents, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has asked its established network of Over Ground Workers (OGWs) in Jammu and Kashmir to infiltrate mainstream national political parties, officials said on Sunday.

The ISI is also trying to recalibrate its strategy by making attempts to revive dormant, locally founded terror outfits from the early 1990s to give an “indigenous colour” to terrorist violence and mask Pakistan’s direct involvement. Pakistan is facing constant monitoring by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global watchdog on money laundering and terror financing.

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According to officials of the central security agencies, recent interrogation of OGWs arrested by Srinagar police showed that some of them were members of national political parties.

By embedding terror sympathisers, who provide critical logistical support, recruitment and funding to terror outfits, within legitimate political structures, the ISI hopes to shield its assets from ongoing operations by security forces.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the strategy stemmed from a sense of desperation and explained that the ISI was running out of options because its conventional terror groups were under intense pressure from security forces and local support for newer proxy outfits had shrunk significantly.

By trying to resurrect old names and blend their workers into mainstream politics, the ISI is attempting to capitalise on a historical narrative to lure a new generation of youth while securing political cover for its operatives.

According to officials, when an OGW is cornered during cordon and search operations, they often attempt to display basic membership cards of national political parties in a futile bid to escape the dragnet.

Security officials have noted that this tactic has evolved over the decades. Suspects routinely used voter identity cards to evade police in the late 1990s and later tried to use Aadhaar cards to avoid detailed investigations.

The officials made it clear that no political leadership had ever stepped in to save such individuals.

In a related development, OGWs have been found attempting to revive outfits that had become largely defunct after 1993.

Security agencies are now closely tracking the resurfacing of terror groups that defined the initial phase of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir in the 1990s and early 2000s, including Al-Umar Mujahideen, Al Badr and Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen.

By attempting to revive these older, home-grown banners, the ISI aims to project a false narrative that terror violence in Jammu and Kashmir is an internal movement rather than a proxy war orchestrated from across the border, the officials said.

While the leadership of these revived terror groups remains sheltered in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, their ground-level networks are attempting to become active in propaganda, funding and radicalisation, they said.

The officials said that central intelligence agencies were maintaining a close vigil on these developments and ensuring the neutralisation of the logistical networks being created by these resurfacing OGWs.

At the same time, they are aggressively combating the ideological radicalisation of youth by terror sympathisers, which they believe is critical to sustaining the hard-earned peace and stability in the region.