Recovery of Pak SIM card sends agencies into tizzy

JAMMU: The recovery of a Pakistani SIM card and currency from a hideout in Poonch district has sent security agencies into a tizzy as they believe that overground workers (OGWs) in the region are still in contact with their handlers across the border to revive militancy in the region.

Ranjit Thakur

Jammu, June 18

The recovery of a Pakistani SIM card and currency from a hideout in Poonch district has sent security agencies into a tizzy as they believe that overground workers (OGWs) in the region are still in contact with their handlers across the border to revive militancy in the region.

Official sources said security forces had recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition , including mobile phones, Pakistani SIM card and currency, from a militant hideout in the Mendhar area of Poonch district.

While security officials claimed that no militant was active in Poonch district, the recovery has dropped enough hints that some OGWs were still in contact with their handlers on the other side of the Line of Control in a bid to revive militancy in twin districts of Poonch and Rajouri. This was the second hideout which was busted by security agencies in less than a month.

“Acting on specific inputs, the Army and local police carried out search operations in the Gursai area of Mendhar and recovered a huge cache of arms, including one AK-47, three magazines, 90 rounds, six pistols along with 10 magazines,” an official spokesperson said.

The security forces also recovered Pakistani currency, mobile phones and SIM card, one Chinese grenade, six Pika rounds, eatables and clothes, knife, etc. On June 4, the security forces had busted a hideout in the Sanai area of Surankote.

A source said four hideouts had been unearthed in last six months in the Jammu region, while 14 hideouts were busted in 2018 and 11 in 2017.

“We have recovered a mobile phone and a Pakistani SIM card and currency. The Pakistani SIM cards usually work in border areas and there are always possibilities that OGWs remain connected with their handlers across the border,” a senior police officer said.

Recently, security agencies had arrested six Pakistani spies from Doda, Udhampur and Kathua and Jammu while foiling a major terror plot being hatched by Pakistan’s ISI to revive militancy in the region.