10 out of 22 districts in J&K are militancy free

Out of 22 districts in Jammu and Kashmir, 10 districts have no militant presence while as the remaining districts have showing decrease in number of active ultras, an official report has revealed.

The annual report of the state crime department reveals that Reasi, Jammu, Samba, Udhampur, Doda, Ramban, Leh, Kargil and Ganderbal districts have zero active militants. Ganderbal is the only district in Kashmir region which has been declared militancy free.

Srinagar district, according to the report, has 11 active militants and 112 over ground workers (OGWs). “Frontier Kupwara district has 32 active militants and 528 OGWs.  In neighbouring Baramulla district there are 33 active militants and 41 OGWs, while Bandipora district has 11 militants and 104 OGWs,” the report reveals.

Central Kashmir’s Budgam district has four active militants and 89 OGWs. However, southern districts of Kashmir have significant number of active militants and OGWs. “In Shopian there are 39 militants and 136 OGWs, Pulwama has 61 militants and 163 OGWs, while Kulgam has 29 active militants and 317 OGWs,” it states.

As per the report, Anantnag district has 23 militants who are active and there are 130 OGWs to support them. Leh and Kargil districts in cold desert Ladakh region and Jammu and Samba districts in Jammu region neither have any active militant nor OGWs, it reveals.

Earlier this year in January, J&K police had declared Baramulla first militant-free police district of the Valley. Baramulla has two police districts -- Baramulla and Sopore. While Baramulla had no resident militant in January, Sopore sub-district had nearly 30 active militants, including nearly a dozen locals.

In Ganderbal district, two locals who joined militancy since 2018 were killed instantly. One of them, an assistant professor on contract in Kashmir University was killed just 36 hours after his joining in 2018 while the other one too could survive for just a few days.

However, a senior police officer said in recent months due to the joining of new militants, Baramulla has not remained militancy free. “If two or three local militants survive in some district, they ensure joining of more youth into militancy. As of now Junaid Sehrai, the son of Hurriyat leader Ashraf Sehrai, has become a role model for the youth wishing to join militancy,” he said.