The Bhartiya Janta party, as per stats, has failed to contain homegrown militancy in Jammu Kashmir since it rose to power in 2014.
Data available to The Kashmiriyat reveals that the Congress-led UPA government saw as many as 154 local youths taking up arms to join militant groups, however, the number has drastically risen to 951 during the Modi Led NDA government till December 2021, according to the official data.
In 2014, the number of locals joining militancy was 53, in 2015, it reached 66 before touching the highest mark of 88 in 2016, in 2017, the number rose further to 126 and in 2018, 218 local youth joined militancy, the highest number in a decade, while in 2019 the number dropped to 139. In 2020 the number rose again to 167 local youth joining various militant outfits in Kashmir. The numbers, according to the official data are 97 till November. However, sources claim that the number is much higher.
“As seen in the recent encounter, several militants have been killed, whose missing reports were not even filed by their families,” sources told The Kashmiriyat.
Following the killing of popular commander, Burhan Wani, militancy saw a revival. Stats reveal that since the rise of BJP into power, locals have been joining militancy at a fast pace.
Following Burhan Wani’s killing in July 2016, several top commanders of militant outfits Hizb, Lashkar and Jaish were killed as part of the much-publicized ‘Operation All-Out’, an anti-militancy operation that was launched in mid- 2017.
Those killed include Sabzar Bhat, Saddam Padder, Sameer Bhat alias ‘Tiger’, Bashir Lashkar, Junaid Matto, Riyaz Naikoo, Bashir Lashkar, Yasin Itoo, Abu Dujana, Abu Ismael, and a few others, however, these killings of armed militants have not deterred youth from joining militancy, figures reveal.
In 2018, at least 218 local youth including three highly educated youths one each from north Kashmir’s Kupwara district and summer capital Srinagar joined militancy, Mannan Bashir Wani, a former research scholar at the AMU, Waseem Ahmed Rather, another Ph.D. scholar from Kulgam, Zubair Ahmed Wani and Sabzar Ahmed Sofi, M.Phil Scholars from south Kashmir. While 139 youths joined militancy in 2019.
The Figures available to The Kashmiriyat also reveal that 1962 militancy related incidents have occurred since 2014 at an average of more than 327 attacks per year. 614- the highest number of attacks took place in 2018, while the number dropped down to the lowest in 2020 at 96. Union minister of state for home affairs Nityanand Rai said that from August 05, 2019 to November 22, 2021 (841 days since the abrogation), 496 militancy-related incidents have been reported from Jammu Kashmir. This is down from 843 such incidents reported in a same span of time before the abrogation.
From October 2020 to October 2021, a total of 251 militancy related incidents took place.
According to the report of the Ministry of Home Affairs in the year 2019, between January 01 and July 15, 75 security personnel and 23 civilians were killed in several incidents, while in 2020, 35 soldiers and 22 civilians were killed. Only 1 IED attack occurred in the year 2020, although in 2019 there were 6 such attacks.
In 2020, 225 militants and 60 government forces personnel, including 16 policemen were killed in more than 100 anti-insurgency operations in Jammu Kashmir while 38 civilians also lost their lives in militancy-related incidents.
In the present year, 35 personnel of the security forces, including Jammu Kashmir police, were killed in such incidents till November 15 and 86 were injured.
Many engineering students, security men have picked up arms since BJP came into power, which include prominent names as Eisa Fazili, Zahoor Thokar, Idrees Mir, and others.
Also, post the rise of the BJP into power, local support has grown for militancy. In 2015, for the first time, locals rushed to an encounter site in form of a procession to help militants trapped in an encounter to escape, one protester was shot dead in Khudwani area of Kulgam.
The dangerous trends have started surfacing on the militancy front in Jammu Kashmir with a youth ramming a vehicle into a CRPF convoy killing more than 45 CRPF troopers.