This year, out of the 136 militants killed till mid-July in Jammu and Kashmir (J-K), 112 are locals while only fifteen were foreigners, as per the data available with the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Last year in this time period 126 militants were killed, reported NDTV. At the same time, the incidents of violence have gone down by 35 per cent. As per Home Ministry statistics, a total of 120 incidents have been reported till 15 July this year while 188 incidents were reported last year.
“In 2020 so far 79 youngsters have joined various terror tanzeems while last year in 2019, 135 were identified who joined various terror groups,” states Vijay Kumar, Inspector General of Police, Kashmir.
According to him, out of 79 seventy-nine newly joined local militants, thirty-eight have been killed and twelve have been arrested. Currently, twenty-nine local militants “who have been recruited this year are operating in the valley,” he adds.
“Most of the operations in the valley were clean operations and no collateral damage was reported. We have managed to put a stop to funeral processions and gun salutes also,” Deputy General of Police, Dilbagh Singh, told NDTV.
The Home Ministry factsheet also pointed out that in a significant achievement militants-initiated violence has seen a drop this year. As per data till mid-July, only twenty-one militants initiated incidents were reported while last year in 2019 as many as fifty-one incidents were reported.