Home-Grown Terrorism Faces The Heat From Security Forces In Kashmir

According to the data released by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), of all the terrorists neutralised in Kashmir this year, 80 per cent were local. This shows that home-grown terrorism has taken a serious hit under amped up security.

The CRPF is one of the largest central forces deployed in the Valley for counter-terrorism operations, along with the Jammu and Kashmir (J and K) Police and the Army. The CRPF has deployed around 65,000 personnel in the state. The CRPF has a strength of around 3 lakh personnel.

The central paramilitary force also enhanced the compensation to the next of kin of personnel killed in action. “The amount for those killed in action has been increased from Rs 21.5 lakh to Rs 35 lakh and for those who died of other reasons, it has been enhanced from Rs 16.5 lakh to Rs 25 lakh,” an official was quoted as saying by The Hindu.

This compensation is provided from the risk fund and central welfare fund of the CRPF. All CRPF personnel contribute Rs 500 each to the risk fund, and the contribution to the central welfare fund is determined by the rank of the official. This year, 11 CRPF personnel have been killed in action — three in J and K and eight in the areas affected by Left Wing Extremism.

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Close to 200 terrorists active in the Valley

The Hindu quoted a CRPF official as saying that till 23 November, as many as 148 militants had been killed, of which 127 were residents and 21 foreigners. In 2020, the number of militants killed in the Valley stood at 195.

“Out of 199 active militants in the Valley, 110 are locals and 89 are foreigners,” the official further informed. Out of the active militants, 97 were recruited to the fold of various terror groups such as The Resistance Front (TRF) - a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) radical Islamist terror group based in Pakistan.

In 2020, as many as 178 men took up terrorism, of which 121 were killed. The number of terror group recruits was 117 in 2019.

Jammu and Kashmir has been under the central rule since June 2018. In August 2019, Parliament abrogated the special status given to J and K under Article 370 of the Constitution and bifurcated the former state into the union territories of J and K and Ladakh.

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