NEW DELHI: More than 100 infiltration attempts from across the border to Jammu and Kashmir have been successful in the last one year, the parliament was informed on Tuesday.
Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai was responding to a question by Congress MP Anto Antony on cross-border intrusion. There were 176 attempts of infiltration from across the border to Jammu and Kashmir from August 2019 to July 2020 and 111 of these attempts were successful, Rai told the Lok Sabha.
Giving details of infiltration and infiltration attempts, the minister said the highest infiltration bids of 48, 40, and 26 were made in August, September, and October 2019 respectively. Of the total infiltration attempts, 32, 36, and 12 bids were successful in these months, just after the legal status of Jammu and Kashmir was changed by the government. On August 5, 2019, the Narendra Modi government scrapped the special status of Jammu and Kashmir by abrogating Article 370 and split the state1 into two Union Territories.
This year, the maximum infiltration happened in the month of April when 23 attempts were made by terrorists to cross over and 18 such bids were successful. Last year, November was the most successful month for security personnel as they managed to foil all six infiltration bids made by terrorists.
This year, July proved to be the best month as all 10 infiltration bids were defeated by security forces. February and June saw no infiltration attempts, according to the official data. In response to another question on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy said Jammu and Kashmir has been affected by terrorism, which is sponsored and supported from across the border, for more than the last three decades.
He said the government has adopted a policy of zero tolerance towards terrorism, and security forces are taking effective and continuous action in countering terrorism. “As a result, 138 terrorists have been neutralized in Jammu and Kashmir from March 1, 2020, to August 31, 2020. During this period of six months, 50 security force personnel attained martyrdom in terrorist-related incidents, ceasefire violations, and cross border firings in Jammu and Kashmir,” Reddy said.