73 terrorists, 30 security personnel, 14 civilians killed in 2023 in J&K: Centre

Srinagar, Feb 07: The Centre on Wednesday said that 73 terrorists, 30 security personnel and 14 civilians were killed in Jammu and Kashmir during the previous year (2023).

It also said that there were 46 terrorist initiated incidents and 48 encounters also reported last year.

In a reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Home, Nityanad Rai said that the government has a policy of zero tolerance against terrorism and the security situation has improved significantly in Jammu and Kashmir.

He also said that no terrorist incident was reported in Ladakh from 2019 to 2023.

Giving details, the minister said 153 terrorists initiated incidents were reported in 2019, 126 in 2020, 129 in 2021 and 251 in 2022.

He said that 102 encounters and counter terrorism operations were reported in 2019, 118 in 2020, 100 in 2021, and 117 in 2022, while 44 civilians were killed in terrorist initiated incidents in encounters in 2019, 38 in 2020, 41 in 2021 and 31 in 2022.

The minister added that 80 security personnel were killed in 2019, 63 in 2020, 42 in 2021 and 32 in 2022, while 157 terrorists were killed in 2019, 221 in 2020, 180 in 2021 and 187 in 2022.