2009 saw lowest violence in two decades in J&K

I / Jammu January 7, 2010, 11:03 IST

The year gone by saw a record low in violence-related incidents in Jammu and Kashmir in the past 20 years. "It was a year of lowest violence in two decades in Jammu and Kashmir. Terror-related incidents, killings of civilians and security force personnel went down below the 1990 figures," DGP Kuldeep Khoda said.

Official records said 79 civilians were victims of violence-related incidents while 72 securitymen were killed during the year. "Civilian killings during 2009 went down by over 42 per cent as compared to 2008 while militancy-related incidents dropped by over 35 per cent," Khoda said.

In 2008, there were 708 militancy-related incidents while 147 civilians and 85 security personnel were killed. As per the figures, 1995 saw the highest number of 5,946 militancy-related incidents in which 1,202 civilians, 237 securitymen and 1,596 militants were killed.

Not only this, the year did not see any major suicide attack on the security establishment or VVIP area, he said. It was only on December 30 that militants struck in Sopore and killed four CRPF jawans.

This is despite the fact that 30,000 security personnel belonging to the army, BSF and CRPF were withdrawn from the state putting more responsibility on the shoulders of the state police, Khoda said.

As many as 235 militants were killed by police and security forces during the year. Cross-border infiltration, however, increased in 2009, Khoda said.

There were as many as 433 infiltration attempts by militants along the Line of Control (LoC) and International Border in Jammu and Kashmir, the statistics showed. In 2008, there were 91 such attempts. Khoda said measures have been taken by security forces to foil these bids.

In a major incident along the LoC, 17 infiltrating militants were killed in Kupwara sector of the Kashmir valley on March 26. Indian forces suffered a set back when Lt Col V R Chander was killed by militants in Baramulla on June 30. Three ultras were also killed by securitymen in the exchange of fire.

Similarly, Major Akash and three infiltrating militants were killed in Poonch sector on September 9 and BSF DIG O P Tanwar died in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast near the Indo-Pak border on November 16.

Troops also killed Hizbul Mujahideen's 'deputy chief of operations' in Jammu and Kashmir Shabir Ahmed on June 5 in Doda, followed by the gunning down of top 'divisional commanders' of JeM, HM and LeT - Abdula Satar, Saquib and Yousef Gujjar at Poonch, Shopian and Kishtwar districts.

Earlier, militants had triggered a powerful IED blast in Poonch on April 21 that killed five civilians and injured seven others.