Lalit Shastri

While Indian soldiers are laying down their life and casualties continue to mount in Jammu and Kashmir due to the low intensity war being waged against India by Pakistan, the Home Minister of India, Rajnath Singh has had this to say on the Kashmir crisis:

Currently there is tension at India-Pakistan border. Whatever is happening now & whatever will happen in future, I would like to assure you that India’s head will always be held high… today and always. (Lucknow Jan 20, 2018)

The same day, when three civilians were caught in exchange of fire on the border, the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had the temerity to bracket together India and Pakistan and say:

Distraught to hear of three more civilians caught in the crossfire on the border. The people of J&K are the worst victims of the acrimony between the two neighbouring countries. I pray that the hostility on the borders ends soon.

Notwithstanding the prevailing situation, Mehbooba Mufti prevailed on the Centre and the Narendra Modi led NDA Government capitulated and ordered the halting of security operations in the Valley during the month of Ramzan.  Within less than a fortnight of the Ramzan ceasefire, on June 1, the youth started pelting stones after the Friday prayers in the Nowhatta Police station area near Jamia Masjid in Srinagar.

A CRPF vehicle that was passing through that area at the same time was targeted by the stone pelting mob. As the CRPF driver tried to steer through the rampaging crowd, two persons were hurt – one of them died in hospital later that night. Earlier during the day, as word spread, downtown Srinagar was flooded by stone pelters. To control the situation, the authorities brought the area falling under the Nowhatta Police station under curfew.

Violence still continued the next day. In the meanwhile, leveraging its act from large-scale stone pelting and bloody violence, the Hurriyat leaders declared a complete shutdown in the entire Kashmir Valley.

Stone pelting mobs and Pakistan-backed terrorists have been holding normal life to ransom in Srinagar and adjoining areas after the security forces had registered major success in combating terrorists and secessionist forces around 2006-2007. Ever since, terrorists operating from bases in Pakistan have been infliterating into Jammu and Kashmir to strike targets in the trouble-torn State. As a combined strategy, the Hurriyat leaders have been radicalising the local youth who are being used to attack the security forces.

In 2008, six people were killed and 100 injured when police fired into a crowd in Srinagar protesting against the transfer of forest land to the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) in the Kashmir valley to set up temporary shelters and facilities for Hindu pilgrims. Separatist leaders Shabir Ahmad Shah, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), had planned the protests. In 2010, the Kashmir valley went through large-scale violence leading to the death of at least 120 persons in firing.

After PDP president Mehbooba Mufti was sworn in as the 17th Jammu and Kashmir Chief minister to head the PDP-BJP Government in April 2016, stone pelting mobs have taken to the streets of Srinagar and adjoining towns in big way.

Simulatenously, ceasefire violations by Pakistan are also on the rise.

During the year 2017, 860 cases of ceasefire violations were reported by the Central Government. During the single month of January this year, 209 ceasefire violations have been reported along Indo-Pakistan Border (LOC) in the State of Jammu & Kashmir.

Year wise details of Cease Fire Violations (CFVs), Terrorist Initiated Incidents (TIIs) & Infiltration Bid Eliminated (IBE) along the Line of Control (LC) under operational control of Army in Jammu & Kashmir in the last three years including current year (till 29 January, 2018) are as under:

Details of casualties suffered by security personnel/civilians in Terrorist Initiated Incidents (TIIs) and Infiltration Bid Eliminated during the last three years and the current year (up to 29 Jan) are as under:

Details of casualties suffered by security personnel/civilians in Terrorist Initiated Incidents (TIIs) and Infiltration Bid Eliminated during the last three years and the current year (up to 29 Jan) are as under:

The details of terrorists killed along the along the LoC / India-Pakistan Border in Jammu & Kashmir Border, in the last three years including current year (up to January, 2018) are as under :

Government of India states in no uncertain terms that increase in Cease Fire Violation in J&K has been precipitated by the nefarious designs of Pakistan in perpetrating violence and creating instability in the region but action in right measure to combat the situation is missing. In the process, the citizens are mute spectators to the supreme sacrifice of our brave soldiers and security personnel.