Centre claims 167 terrorists have been killed so far this year, with 41 being foreigners
Contrary to claims by security forces about infiltrations having dropped this year, latest reports from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) reveal that the number of foreign terrorists operating in the Kashmir Valley has actually gone up.
According to the Home Ministry, 134 terrorists belonging to various terror outfits are currently active in Jammu and Kashmir, out of which 83 are foreigners and only 51 are locals.
The government also claims that 167 terrorists have been killed so far this year, with 41 being foreigners.
In comparison, last year, 184 terrorists were active. Among them, 85 were foreigners and 99 were locals.
"The figures are self-explanatory. If 83 foreign are still active this year and 41 have been killed and if the figure of foreign terrorists last year stood at 85, then it clearly means that either the security forces are not putting up a clear picture before the ministry or infiltration is taking place but, it is not being admitted," a senior police officer who used to command forces in Kashmir said.
He said that at the recent United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Counter-Terrorism Committee's meeting in Mumbai, MHA had conceded that violence in the Kashmir Valley was again escalating.
Army patrols along the Line of Control (LoC), while the Border Security Force (BSF) guards the International Border (IB). Both forces have been claiming that there has been no infiltration in their control areas.
"We have been foiling infiltration bids regularly due to our multi-tier grids along LoC and IB and that's why numbers have come down," a senior army officer told NDTV.
Last year, 77 infiltration bids were thwarted and 34 were recorded as successful infiltration bids, according to Home Ministry's data submitted in Lok Sabha. This year, the figure has decreased further as per security officials operating in Jammu and Kashmir.
At the UNSC meeting, the Home Ministry said that the number of cross-border terror bases had declined by 75 per cent when Pakistan was on Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) 'grey list'.
"The moment it was being said that Pakistan would be out of the 'grey list', the number of these terror bases went up by 50 per cent, and we are expecting more attacks on hard targets [security installations]," a senior official had explained to the delegates in Mumbai.
According to government data, there were 600 terror camps across Jammu and Kashmir in mid-2018, which came down to 150 in the middle of 2021. However, by September 2022, the number of these terror bases increased to 225.
"The government is contradicting itself. At the UNSC meeting, it claimed that violence levels in Kashmir had escalated after Pakistan was delisted from the FATF 'grey list'. Yet, the home minister claims that peace has been restored in the Valley," a former Intelligence Bureau official said.
Kuldiep Singh, former Director General of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), recently said that the challenges in Jammu and Kashmir have increased manifold since the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan in August last year.
"There have been constant inputs that some hard targets, including establishments housing security forces, could be targeted by the terrorists. That's why the security grid is being reviewed," a senior officer added.