April 19
A Report release by Ministry of Home affairs has claimed that Civilian deaths in Jammu Kashmir rose by a staggering 167% last year compared to 2015.
The army and state police has claimed that most of the civilian deaths happened due to their interference during counter-insurgency operations.
But human rights activists and groups have been accusing excessive use of force by Government Forces personnel the cause for increase in the deaths.
“The year 2017 witnessed an increase in incidents of terrorist violence and causalities of civilians as compared to the last year. However, casualties of security forces have decreased in comparison to the last year,” said the report’s ‘Security Situation in J&K’ section (see graphic).
The death of civilians in Kashmir spiked after the killing of Hizb ul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in July 2016, triggering months-long street protests.
At least a 100 people were shot dead in the month long protests.
Hundreds of civilians were left with severe eye injuries by pellets fired by the forces.