The Militancy related incidents in Kashmir have been on rise since 2016, post the killing of Burhan Wani. Statistics reveal that the June of this year was the deadliest in terms of militant casualties.
Most of these casualties were reported from south Kashmir which continues to be a militant hotbed.
The number of militants killed in June is more than the figures in five months post scrapping of Article 370 on August 5 last year.
28 militants were killed in August-December 2019 as the top focus of security forces shifted from anti-militancy operations to maintaining law and order.
The month of June also saw 22 militancy-related incidents, including 19 encounters, a hit-and-run attack on forces and two civilian killings, including that of a Kashmiri Pandit sarpanch. In these incidents, 52 militants, three civilians and two CRPF jawans were killed.
Of the 19 encounters, 15 took place in four districts of south Kashmir – 5 in Pulwama, 3 in Kulgam, 5 in Shopian and two in Anantnag. Most militants killed in June encounters were locals and belonged to Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.
Several local youth, many of them highly educated, joined the militant ranks after Burhan’s killing and were later killed in encounters.
Atul Goel, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of police south Kashmir said that militants were killed because of better information and better intelligence.
“More information is coming. People are fed up with militancy and are cooperating with the police,” he said adding, “People are now forthcoming and cooperating with police”. (With Inputs from NIE)