More than 40 top commanders heading Pakistan based terror outfits were eliminated among 225 terrorists in over 100 encounters by the joint teams of security forces across Jammu & Kashmir in 2020, Director General of Police Dilbagh Singh said on Thursday.
Compared to 2019, the security forces gunned down 65 more terrorists in 2020. A total number of 160 terrorists were gunned down in 2019. Meanwhile, the number of local recruits inducted by different outfits in its ranks recorded an upward trend in 2020. However, the shelf life of these terrorists was reduced between 3 days to 3 months in 2020.
Addressing an annual Press conference in the lawns of the Police headquarters in Jammu DGP Dilbagh Singh told reporters the total number of infiltration bids, incidents related to terrorist violence and civilian killings have also come down.
Sharing details DGP said “We undertook over 100 successful operations in J&K. Ninety operations took place in Kashmir and 13 in Jammu. As many as 225 terrorists were killed — 207 in Kashmir and 18 in Jammu division.”
He said that among the slain terrorists, 46 were top commanders belonging to various outfits. “Today, all top commanders of various outfits have been eliminated,” he added.
The DGP said 16 Jammu & Kashmir Police personnel — 15 in Kashmir and one in Jammu — and 44 security forces jawans — 42 in Kashmir and two in Jammu — were killed while fighting terrorism this year. Singh said that police and security agencies have cracked down on overground workers (OGWs) of terror outfits, who throw grenades or work as messengers and couriers.
“As many as 635 OGWs were arrested and 56 out of them were booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA),” he said.
During the year, 299 terrorists and their associates were arrested and 12 terrorists surrendered, he said.
The police chief said that 426 weapons, over 9,000 ammunition and magazines, and a huge cache of explosive material were recovered and seized during anti-terror operations.
There has been a decrease in the number of civilian killings this year. “As many as 38 civilians were killed this year as compared to 44 last year,” Singh said.
He, however, said that there has been a slight increase in terrorist recruitment this year as compared to last year. “But 70 per cent of them have either been eliminated or have left terror outfits and returned. As many as 46 terrorists have been arrested and 76 have been killed (among new recruits). Their shelf life is very less,” the DGP said.
He said that there is a large scale decrease in the level of infiltrations this year. Due to the strong anti-infiltration grid, the infiltration is down, he said. Singh said that Pakistan is trying to increase the arch of terrorism to Jammu region and foment communal trouble here.
“There were a dozen terrorists active in the Jammu region, the number has reduced to three now. They are in Kishtwar district, we are tracking them,” Singh said.
The police chief further said that despite several attempts by Pakistan, cases of infiltration this year is the lowest in the last three-four years.
“So, they (Pakistan) had to rely on local recruits and they tried to supply weapons, explosive materials and cash to them through drones, most of these were foiled,” he said.
“The best thing is that the trend of local youths joining terror group is constantly decreasing,” he added.
