NEW DELHI: The security situation in Jammu and Kashmir has 'improved significantly' since August 2019 when the erstwhile state was bifurcated into two Union territories along with the revocation of Article 370 that gave special status to J&K, the central government said in Parliament on Tuesday, a day after three policemen were killed and 11 others injured in a terror attack that took place on the outskirts of Srinagar.
Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai made the statement in the Lok Sabha while responding to questions posed by his party colleague Rattan Lal Kataria on the security situation in the newly created Union territory post abrogation of Article 370.
There has been a significant decline in terrorist incidents and infiltration of terrorists from across the border, Rai said.
When asked whether the people of J&K have fearlessly participated in the democratic process, Rai said that the elections to the Block Development Councils (BDC) and District Development Councils (DDCs) in Kashmir were conducted peacefully and successfully in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
“There was an enthusiastic participation of the people, with a turnout of 98.29% in BDC elections and 51.42% in DDC elections,” Rai said.
The junior home minister cited data according to which there has been a dip of over 15 percent in terrorist incidents this year and a drop of around 45 percent in infiltrations this year compared to incidents last year.
As of December 5 this year, 206 terrorist incidents were reported in Jammu and Kashmir. Last year, 244 such incidents were reported whereas the number stood at 255 and 417 in 2019 and 2018 respectively.
In 2018, 143 incidents of ‘estimated net infiltration’ were reported from Jammu and Kashmir which came down to 141 in 2019, 51 in 2020 and 28 this year (up to October 30, 2021), the data provided by the minister in his response showed.