Jammu and Kashmir police conducted dozens of raids in Srinagar district and other areas of the Valley overnight, detaining around 200 suspected over-ground workers (OGWs) of militant outfits, former militants and stone pelters.

Officials said the detentions were part of the unprecedented crackdown launched in the wake of the busting of a “white collar terror module” last month, although some reports suggested there were inputs about suspected militant activities.

The police were tight-lipped about the operation till Saturday, although an official acknowledged there was a major crackdown on “terror networks and their sympathisers”, a part of the offensive to dismantle these networks.

“Raids were carried out in Srinagar city and some other places during which around 200 suspected OGWs were detained,” an official said.

Sources said many of those detained had previously engaged in stone throwing or militancy but were leading normal lives in recent years.

Over the weeks following the busting of the terror module headed by doctors, former militants and stone pelters, along with members of the banned Jamat-e-Islami and other separatists, have borne the brunt of the ongoing crackdown.

The larger crackdown is seen as an attempt to keep the secessionist ecosystem under check. Paradoxically, the recent troubles have been caused by individuals without any known past links to disruptive activities, raising questions about the effectiveness of such measures.

The police recently arrested two senior but “inactive” separatists — Javed Ahmad Mir and Shakeel Bakshi — in what the officials said was “part of an ongoing effort to investigate and bring closure to long-pending cases that date back to the height of militancy in the 1990s”.

Hurriyat chief and Kashmir’s chief cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq told a Friday gathering at Srinagar’s Jama Masjid that there was deep concern among people “over the developments taking place in which individuals are being arrested in connection with decades-old cases”.

“This has created a lot of anxiety and uncertainty, especially among those persons and their families who have long since disengaged from past paths,” he said. Mirwaiz claimed thousands of Kashmiri prisoners were “languishing in jails in and outside Jammu and Kashmir, some for decades, causing immense suffering to their families. Arresting more and more people only adds to the woes and pain of Kashmiris,” he added.

Lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha, however, said that the crackdown on militants would continue. “Under the guidance of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah, our policy on terrorism is unequivocal — zero tolerance to terrorism in all its forms,” Sinha said during an event at the Lok Bhavan on Saturday, where he handed over 39 letters to the next of kin of militancy victims.

“Every available resource and means will be used to make Jammu and Kashmir terrorism-free and those who are giving sanctuary, haven or any other support to terrorists will have to pay a very heavy price,” he added.

The LG claimed the system ignored the pain and trauma of these families for a long time and “real victims of terrorism and true martyrs were hounded by elements within the terror ecosystem”.

“On one hand, the OGWs were appointed in government jobs, on the other, the next of kin of terror victims were left to fend for themselves,” he said.