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Substantial decline in terror attacks in J&K; steep spike in ceasefire violations

244 terrorist attacks took place in 2020, killing 37 civilians and 62 jawans

Representative image | AP Representative image | AP

There has been a substantial decline in the terrorist attacks over the last three years, due to a slew of pre-emptive measures undertaken by the government, the Parliament was told on Tuesday. 

In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Home Affairs G. Kishan Reddy said the government has been consistently raising the issue of cross border terrorism and has placed high emphasis on international cooperation in combating the menace of terrorism including in bilateral, regional and international fora.

Later, the MHA said in a statement that as many as 244 terrorist attacks took place in the Union Territory in 2020, killing 37 civilians and 62 security personnel. In 2019, 39 civilians and 80 security personnel were killed in 594 terror attacks. The total number of attacks in 2018 was 614, in which 39 civilians and 91 security personnel were killed.

While 221 terrorists were eliminated by security forces last year, 157 and 257 militants were killed in 2019 and 2018 respectively.

However, the year 2020 witnessed a sharp increase in ceasefire violations with 5,133 incidents reported last year. While 3,479 violations were reported in 2019, the number was 2,140 in 2018.

According to MHA, 24 security personnel and 22 civilians were killed in ceasefire violations in 2020.

Kinetic operations, preventive operations, intensified night patrolling, regular coordination meetings by forces, sharing of Intelligence inputs on real time basis among the forces are some of the steps taken by the government to curb terrorist activities, said MHA.

“Further to expose Pakistan’s connection with various terrorist outfits in the international arena, Government of India is also using the various evidence collected during investigations of terror attacks for inclusion in bilateral and multilateral discussions,” the MHA added.

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