BSH NEWS
The number of militants killed in Jammu and Kashmir witnessed a sharp spike of nearly 200% in the past one and a half months. As many as 24 militants, including foreign terrorists, were killed in operations by security forces, between January 1 and February 15 this year, as compared to 8 militants during the same period last year, as per official data.
The operations were stepped up following a series of attacks on civilians and the targeting of J&K policemen last year. In the first two months of this year, five security personnel have been killed while civilian casualty has remained zero so far, officials added.
In 2021, 193 militants were killed while 232 were gunned down in 2020. “The recent success by the security forces can be attributed to better coordination among the security forces, movement of cadres from the upper regions to accessible areas due to tough weather conditions, among others,” said a senior government official.
On January 29, five terrorists of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) were killed in two separate encounters in Budgam and Pulwama districts.
Police later identified JeM ‘commander’ Zahid Wani, along with a Pakistani terrorist namely Wahid Ahmed Rishi and two locals — Kafeel alias Chhota Pakistani and Inayatullah Mir — among those killed.
The uptick in anti-militancy was conveyed to Union home minister Amit Shah who held a security review on Friday along with NSA Ajit Doval and J&K LG Manoj Sinha. The security brass informed Shah that terror incidents have declined from 417 in 2018 to 229 in 2021 and the number of security personnel killed in action has fallen from 91 in 2018 to 42 in 2021.
Shah instructed the “strengthening of the security grid to ensure zero cross-border infiltration.” Among the militants killed this year, eight were suspected to be foreigners while the remaining were locals. Besides counter-terror operations, the federal probe agency of NIA carried out raids in Sopore, Kupwara, Shopian, Rajouri, Budgam, Ganderbal of Jammu & Kashmir and Jodhpur district of Rajasthan, on Saturday.
The case relates to conspiracy by the cadres of proscribed terrorist organisations LeT, JeM, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), Al Badr and their affiliates such as The Resistance Front, People Against Fascist Forces (PAFF), to carry out terrorist attacks in J&K and other major cities including New Delhi. As many as 28 suspects have been arrested so far by the agency.
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