NEW DELHI: Applauding Indian army role in combating terror, Union home minister Rajnath singh on claimed that last September’s surgical strike on terrorists launch pads located in Pakistan occupied Kashmir has resulted sharp decline in infiltration of militants from across the border 45 per cent in past six months.
Narrating achievements of the NDA government on Saturday on the occasion of completion of three years, Rajnath Singh claimed that there had been significant improvement in the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir and Northeast and vowed to stamp out militant movement from the state. He said that as many as 911 NDFB operatives were arrested, 52 were neutralised a huge cache of arms and ammunition were recovered.
Union home minister without spelling out time frame assured that situation in Kashmir valley will be improved soon.
"I completely trust the security forces and the people of Jammu and Kashmir.... I assure that we will end terrorism in Kashmir," the minister said.
"We have taken effective action against National Democratic Front of Bodoland/Saoraigwra or NDRB(S). There have been sustained counter-insurgency operations against them. Their back-bone has been broken," he mentioned about the situation in northeast. While releasing figures, the minister said that the number of insurgency incidents was lowest in 2015 since 1997 and further reduced in 2016 and in 2014 there were 824 such incidents, in 2015 the number came down to 524 and last year it was further reduced to 484.
Vowing to uproot Pakistan-sponsored militant activities in Jammu and Kashmir, Singh went on by asserting that the NDA government is working towards a permanent solution to the seven-decade-old Kashmir issue, though it may take some time, as the Centre is open to talks and will take the people of the state and political parties into confidence for resolving the Kashmir issue.
"The solution to the Kashmir problem cannot be found by just snapping our fingers. Kashmir is an old issue, it has been going on since 1947.We are working for a permanent solution. I have said this with utmost responsibility, after much thinking and deliberations. We have some plans and are working in this direction and will find a solid solution in future. It may take some time," he said, while saying the solution will be a "comprehensive and integrated solution".
On the possibility of initiating dialogue with Kashmiri separatists, Singh said he has been advocating talks with all concerned ever since he took charge as home minister three years ago.
"From the beginning, I have been saying that we are ready for talks. Whoever comes forward for talks, we will talk. We are open to talks to find a solution to the Kashmir issue. All problems can be resolved only through dialogue," he said.
Blaming Pakistan for sponsoring militants in Jammu and Kashmir, the union home minister stressed that the violence will not last long.
"Whatever Pakistan is doing in Kashmir is a betrayal to the youths of the state," he said, adding "we will not let them succeed in this".
"We don't want to see stones in the hands of Kashmiri youths. We want to remove any stone which can impede their path to a brighter future," the minister added.
Asked whether he considers the current unrest in Kashmir Valley as very alarming, Singh said there were such situations in the past too.
"There were bad situations in the past too. We will control it and bring back normalcy," he said.
On ISIS role in India, Rajnath Singh pointed out that despite India has the largest Muslim population in the world but ISIS had been unable to establish itself in the country.
He said 90 ISIS sympathisers had been arrested across the country and ISIS and Ansar Ul Ammah have been included in the list of terrorist organisations.
During presenting NDA government’s report card, union home minister also claimed that there had been a 25 per cent reduction in Naxal attacks in 2014-17 as compared to 2011-14 (UPA tenure), as three years of NDA government had seen a 42 per cent reduction in deaths in Naxal attacks as compared to last three years of the UPA.