With the Narendra Modi government giving a free-hand to Indian Army, its counter-terror offensive has started yielding positive results.
According to a ToI report, the forces involved in counter-terror operations have killed as many as 92 terrorists till July, this year.
This is 13 more than 79 killed in the corresponding period of 2016, the report said.
Interestingly, the number of terrorists eliminated by the security forces so far this year has surpassed the year-wise figures for 2012 and 2013 when Congress-led UPA was in power at the Centre.
In fact, the numbers of terrorists killed in counter-insurgency operations so far this year have surpassed the year-wise figures for 2012 and 2013 when UPA was in power at the Centre.
As compared to 72 and 67 terrorists neutralised by the security forces in J&K in 2012 and 2013 respectively, the numbers picked up during NDA’s tenure, touching 110 in 2014, 108 in 2015 and 150 in 2016.
“Terrorists killed till July 2 this year are only slightly less than killings through 2014 and 2015,” a senior home ministry official was quoted as saying, attributing the successes to seamless coordination between the Army, central forces, state government and intelligence agencies.
“The forces have been given a free hand to track and intercept the terrorists holed up in the Valley, before launching intelligence-based operations with due mapping of the target and how to neutralise terrorists with minimum collateral damage,” he added.
The official further stated that among the 92 terrorists killed in J&K till July, most of them were most wanted and highly active in Kashmir.
The official also informed that infiltration also saw a decline. While 371 infiltration cases were recorded in 2016, the number declined to 124 till May-end this year.
While at least 168 terror-related incidents were recorded till July 2 this year as compared to 126 in the corresponding period of 2016, stone-pelting cases also witnessed a sharp decline with 142 incidents till June 2017.
Importantly, in July 2016 alone there were as many as 820 incidents, triggered by the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen leader Burhan Wani on July 8.
