India claims that the killings of 24 Pakistani terrorists in the last eight months within the state of Jammu & Kashmir clearly reveals Pakistan’s continued support to terrorism in the region. As per reports, eight terrorists were killed in Jammu while sixteen others were killed in Kashmir. India has also said that all of these 24 terrorists belonged to Pakistan, with Lashkar and Jaish being the two major operating groups.
In a joint operation of police and border security forces, a terrorist named Saifulla alias Abhu Khalid alias Shawaz was killed on December 19. Saifulla was a resident of Pakistan’s Karachi region and has been said to be active since 2016 in India’s Jammu and Kashmir. The Head of the police force in Kashmir revealed that Saifulla was responsible for the killing of civilians in Teh valley and had been active in the Harwan area for a long time.
India says that these details and many more specifics of other similar terrorists reveal three things. The first would be Pakistan’s continuity towards supporting terrorism in the region, even when Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan claims the nation as a non-supporting partisan of terrorism on international platforms. The second would be the continued infiltration of terrorists across the Line of Control into Jammu and Kashmir. The third would be the involvement of Lashkar and Jaish who continue to pose as indigenous Kashmiri groups and target the innocent civilians while damaging peace and stability in the region.
In the recently concluded winter session of the Parliament, the Indian Home Ministry informed of the improving security situation in the region since August 2019. As per reports, the number of terror incidents has come down from 417 in 2018 to 203 (up to November 30) in 2021 while the estimated net infiltration has come down from 143 in 2018 to 28 (till October 31) in 2021.
While answering to a question, the Minister of Home Affairs of India, Shri Nityanand Rai said, “The government has instituted robust security and intelligence grid along with proactive operations against terrorists. Therefore, the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir has improved significantly since August 2019.” Records further reveal that the number of terrorist incidents in Jammu and Kashmir were 417 in 2018, while it was 255 in 2019, 244 in 2020 and only 203 till November 30, 2021.
