New Delhi (Sputnik): There has been a spike in the number of terrorist incidents in Jammu and Kashmir state since 2014, with the number of reported incidents swelling from 222 in 2014 to 614 in 2018, the Government of India said on Tuesday.
Since 2016 the Indian security forces have neutralised 733 terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir, with 113 of them in 2019 alone, said Minister of State for Home Affairs G. Kishan Reddy while sharing the government statistics in the ongoing Budget Session of the Indian parliament.
The statistics released by the government also revealed that 2018 witnessed the maximum number of killings in the State, when Indian forces neutralised 257 terrorists. Meanwhile, a total of 213 terrorists were killed in 2017 and 150 in the previous year.
"The government has adopted a policy of zero tolerance towards terrorism. The 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,” Reddy told the Parliament.
“The security forces are also keeping a close watch on persons who attempt to provide support to terrorists and initiate action against them," the minister added.
Among the key anti-terror operations this year in Kashmir, a crucial strike was the June 18 counter-militancy operation where the Indian forces managed to gun down a wanted terrorist, Sajjad Bhat.
Bhat was the alleged mastermind of the 14 February Pulwama suicide bombing attack claimed by Pakistan-based Jaish-e Mohammad on a convoy of Indian military personnel which killed 40 troopers.
For the past year, the state of Jammu and Kashmir is under President’s Rule after the coalition government comprising People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fell out in June 2018. The state has been ruled by a centrally-appointed Governor ever since.
