J&K witnessed 280 terrorism-related incidents in 3 years: MHA

Srinagar, Aug 1: The Ministry of Home Affairs Tuesday said that Jammu and Kashmir witnessed around 280 terrorism-related incidents during the last 3 years and that the incidents of terrorist violence and infiltration had declined during the last two years.

The Minister of State (MoS) in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Nityanand Rai stated this in a written reply while replying to the queries raised by Member of Parliament Gajanan Kirtikar.

Kirtikar had sought the details about the incidents of terrorist violence and infiltration in J&K.

He said that around 129 terrorist related incidents were witnessed in 2021 while 125 such incidents were witnessed in 2022, and 26 incidents were witnessed in 2023.

The MoS Home said 34 and 14 infiltrations were witnessed in 2021 and 2022 while no infiltration was reported till June ending this year.

“The government has a zero tolerance policy against terrorism and the security situation has improved significantly in J&K,” he said.

About the measures being taken by the government to end violence, check infiltration, and restore normalcy in J&K, Kirtikar in his written reply stated that the government had taken various measures to curb terrorist violence in J&K.

He said that these include proactive counter insurgency operations against terrorists, identification, and arrest of Over Ground Workers (OGWs) of terrorists, deployment of Police, Army, Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), night patrolling, and area domination.

“Attachment of properties belonging to terrorists and their associates under relevant sections of the law, sharing of intelligence inputs amongst all security forces on a real-time basis and intensified Cordon and Search Operations (CASO) are undertaken to thwart any terrorist incidents in J&K,” the MoS Home said.

He said that the Centre had adopted a well-coordinated and multi-pronged strategy to tackle cross-border infiltration.

“This includes tactical deployment of forces at International Border (IB), Line of Control (LoC), use of technology like surveillance cameras, night vision cameras, heat sensing gadgets, multi-tiered deployment along IB and LoC, and border fencing,” Kirtikar said.

He said that intelligence personnel are deployed to collect advance and target-oriented inputs on infiltration and ambushes. “Foot patrolling by Indian Army or Border Security Force (BSF) and establishment of Border Police Posts (BPPs) help in generating local intelligence and other proactive actions are taken against the infiltrators,” he said.