J&K: No militancy related deaths in first 17 days of 2021

After witnessing a surge in 2020, encounters between militants and security forces have dried up in the first 17 days of this year in Jammu and Kashmir.

Barring a grenade attack in the volatile Tral area of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district on January 2, in which eight civilians were injured, no other major militancy incident has taken place in the Valley so far.

Last year, 225 militants, including 46 commanders, and 60 security forces personnel, including 16 policemen were killed in over 103 anti-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir while 38 civilians had also lost their lives in militancy-related incidents. As many as 157 militants were killed in Kashmir in 2019 while the number was 257 in 2018 which was the highest in a decade.

A senior police officer told DH that militants were lying low and they have restricted their movement in the harsh winter. “The militants are not moving out of their hideouts frequently and are not moving from one point to another. But it won’t last long as anti-militancy operations would continue in 2021 the way they were last year,” he asserted.

The first militancy related incident in 2020 was reported on January 4 when a civilian got injured after militants hurled a grenade on paramilitary CRPF personnel in old city Srinagar while the first militant was killed on January 7 in Awantipora area of south Kashmir.

17 militants and two security forces personnel were killed in eight encounters in January 2020. However, the last encounter of 2020, which took place on December 30 in the Hokersar area on the outskirts of Srinagar city, created controversy.

Three youths – youngest being all of 17 years - from south Kashmir were killed on December 30 inside a house in Hokersar on the outskirts of Srinagar city by the security forces in a joint operation. While police and army claimed they were militants, relatives claim they were students and killed in a staged gunfight.