A total of 40 civilians were killed in Kashmir in terror-related incidents this year until the end of November, according to the union home ministry, even as the Centre says the annual casualty figure has been around the same over the past five years. “The number of civilian killings has remained in the range of 37-40 every year during the last five years, 2017 to 2021 (till November 30, 2021),” minister of state for home Nityanand Rai said in Parliament on Wednesday in response to a question from Congress lawmaker KC Venugopal.
Venugopal had sought to know if civilian killings had increased recently. The targeted killing of Kashmiri Pandits, Sikhs, migrant labourers and locals who worked with Pandits in recent months led to an exodus from the Valley to Jammu and to other parts of the country.
The ministry, however, said that a lot of migrant labourers continue to stay in the Valley. “Notwithstanding attempts by the terrorists to target some civilians, a large number of migrant workers continued to stay on in the Kashmir valley and left as usual upon the onset of harsh winters,” Rai said.
News18 during its visit to Kashmir in October came across migrant labourers who were leaving because of the targeted killings. Some, however, did say that they would return in the summer, if the situation improved.
Rai also informed the Rajya Sabha that the total number of terror incidents in the Valley had halved compared to 2018. While this year up to November 30, a total of 203 incidents had been reported, in 2018 the figure stood at 417.
The opposition has sharpened its attack on the central government on its Kashmir policy after the recent killings of civilians and police personnel. Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury termed it “complete failure of Kashmir policy” while former J&K chief minister Farooq Abdullah called for talks with Pakistan to resolve the situation. Ties between the two countries plummeted further after India scrapped Jammu and Kashmir’s special status on August 5, 2019, and bifurcated it into two union territories.
The union government acknowledged that Pakistan continues to aid and abet infiltration but added that various steps like proactive operations against terrorists, identification and arrests of overground workers, action against supporters of banned organisations, etc, have been taken. Intensified night patrolling and checking at nakas, security arrangements through appropriate deployment, coordination meeting amongst security agencies, high level of alertness maintained by security forces, legal action in case of terror funding, etc, were all measures listed by the home ministry to take on terrorists.
On the question of elections in the state turned union territory, the ministry said, “Decision to schedule elections is the prerogative of Election Commission of India.” It added that a decision on statehood for Jammu and Kashmir will be taken at an appropriate time.
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