Terrorists 'on the run' in Jammu and Kashmir: Union Minister Jitendra Singh

Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Saturday said terrorists are on the run in Kashmir and are faced with a "hot chase" by security forces, which has put them under tremendous pressure.

Under the Modi government, there is clarity and conviction in following the policy of zero tolerance towards terrorism, and this has started showing logical results, Singh, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), said here.

Expressing deep dismay at the brutal killing of a BJP leader in Kashmir's Bandipora, he said this was also the handiwork of the terrorists who are on the run and are looking for soft targets out of desperation.

This is the last chapter of the 30-year-old history of terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir, Singh said, adding that two heavily affected districts of Doda and Kishtwar, which witnessed many a massacre in the last three decades, have been rendered terror-free.

"Terrorists are on the run in Kashmir and are faced with a hot chase by security forces, which has, for the first time in several years, put them under tremendous pressure," the minister told PTI here.

He said it was significant that even the separatist leaders and the so-called mainstream political parties of Kashmir have started tactically distancing themselves from the terrorists.

"A more recent heartening phenomenon is that Kashmir-centric leaders now stand exposed for their duplicity and the new generation of youth is not prepared to stake its future in the manner the earlier two generations were pushed into doing," said Singh, Lok Sabha member from Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur constituency.

On the current scenario in Jammu and Kashmir in the wake of Covid-19, Singh said unlike in many other parts of the country, the development activities continued in the Union Territory, though sometimes, the pace got reduced or there was a brief interruption.

"Despite the lockdown, work is going on for the construction of a medical college in Doda and a National Institute of High Altitude Medicine in Bhaderwah," he said.