CI wing of J&K police revived to counter Pak attempts to revive militancy

To effectively control the attempts by Pakistan to revive militancy in Jammu and Kashmir, the government has ordered the revival of the Counter Insurgency (CI) unit of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) immediately.

Sources said the CI unit with headquarters at Jammu and Srinagar which was the case when it was brought under the control of CID Special Branch in April 2022, will once again function as a full-fledged intelligence gathering unit against the terror ecosystem.

The CI wing was merged with the Special Branch of CID on April 11, 2022 following the constitution of the Special Investigation Agency (SIA). In November 2021, J&K government had constituted the SIA on the lines of National Investigation Agency (NIA). The SIA also draws manpower from the CID. The SIA has got its sanctioned strength and functions as a separate entity.

With police stations in Jammu as well as Srinagar, the CI wing can also undertake operations against the militants on the basis of specific inputs, they said and added the decision was taken in view of reports that Pakistan was attempting to revive militancy in the union territory (UT), especially in Pir-Panjal and Chenab regions of Jammu.

An official order said to ensure the revival of CI unit as a separate vertical, the manpower working under the operation control of Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) Special Branch has been detached with immediate effect to work under operational control and command of the SSP CI Jammu and Srinagar.

Recently, J&K government had ordered posting of SSPs Counter Intelligence in Jammu as well as Srinagar. With the revival of the CI unit, the CID will have three separate wings.

The CI unit will exclusively focus on gathering intelligence about militant networks while the Special Branch will focus on verifications and political side and SIA will investigate major terror-related cases, a senior police official said, adding the measures are aimed at hitting at the terror ecosystem in the UT.

The CI wing will focus on the intelligence network, especially in tracking down the over ground workers (OGWs), who serve as backbone of the militancy. It is pertinent to mention here that both Dhangri carnage accused in the Rajouri district remained untraced even after more than two months of the killings.

Seven civilians from the minority community, two of them minors, were killed and over a dozen others were injured in an attack by two foreign terrorists at Dhangri on New Year.