Hybrid militants are those who lead mostly regular civilian lives, including being engaged in activities like studying or working for the most of the day, until they slip out to carry out an assigned attack and then return to their normal routine. Whereas, the over-ground workers (OGWs) are the people who provide logistical support, cash, accommodation, and other facilities to the militants and assist them in their surreptitious movement. Usage of these two terms highlights the changing dynamics of militancy, which is evident from the following arguments:

• Maintaining anonymity: In contemporary times, militants appear to have changed their strategy by keeping their militant identity hidden, making it difficult for security agencies to track them down. For e.g., many hybrid militants do not have a track record of engaging in anti-state activity making it difficult to be found in police records.
• Wide and clever use of social media: The new militants use social media to spread the call of jihad and inspire the youth to join their ranks. For e.g., hybrid militants are often radicalized online and even receive an easy-to-use weapon to complete the assigned tasks. So, social media has made the process of recruitment much easier.
• Changing targets: In the past, security forces were the main targets. Now, civilians and unarmed policemen are bearing the brunt of militant attacks. For e.g., according to J&K police, more than 70% of the 55 targeted killings since 2021 by hybrid militants have been civilians.
• Rising local support: OGWs act as eyes and ears of the underground militants, arranging hideouts, transporting weapons from safe havens to places where militants plan to carry out strikes, keeping an eye on security forces’ movements, distributing separatist literature, and engaging in hate campaigns against security forces. While the recruitment process has become easier under the new militancy, the local recruits like hybrid militants and OGWs are very poorly trained and these militants do not last long in combat with security forces. Further, it is pertinent to mention that the usage of these terms has raised some concerns as well, including the following: As “hybrid” is used as a mere term for an unrecognized militant, it can be misused easily by the security agencies in a region like Kashmir, where forces enjoy special powers under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). Both the terms have raised concerns as many families, whose members were killed and declared as hybrid or OGWs by the security forces, considered them innocent.

As the militants have preferred to conceal their identity, the task of the security agencies to carry out anti-militancy operations has become difficult. The changing contours of militancy demand a redefinition of policies and responses that must go beyond traditional approaches.