The Indian Ministry of Home Affair (MHA) informed that a total of 963 terrorists have been eliminated in Jammu and Kashmir between 2014 and 2019. This information was provided by Minister of State (MoS) Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy. The Lok Sabha was also informed by the MHA that 413 security personnel have lost their lives which make the ratio painfully at almost 2:1.
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The reply given by Reddy was based on the statistics between 2014 to 2019. The minister also responded to the question related to the welfare of the slain Central Armed Police Forces Personnel (CAPF). The officers are being provided with designated Welfare Officers at unit levels to habilitate the families to avail of the benefits.
The first two months of this year saw violent clashes between the security forces and insurgents. According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, 56 soldiers died in Jammu and Kashmir within the initial two months of this year. There is an increase in ceasefire violations around the Line of Control (LoC).
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The government revealed that there is a considerable rise in the number of terrorists being eliminated each year. According to recent statistics, 108 were killed in 2015; 150 killed in 2016; 213 in 2017 and 253 in 2018. The written response by G Kishan Reddy suggests, “The government has adopted a policy of zero tolerance towards terrorism. Security forces are taking effective and continuous action in countering terrorism. This has resulted in a corresponding change in the number of such incidents, including casualties.”
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Experts talking to EurAsian Times suggested that the trend is worrying as India almost lost one soldier to two militants in Jammu and Kashmir. And let’s not forget that most of the militants are locals, ill-equipped, ill-trained and still the ratio of deaths is too high for the Indian army. But the expert added that its a guerilla warfare and it gets extremely difficult for defence forces to track and eliminate the enemy while ensuring limited collateral damage.
