New Delhi: The Centre has informed Parliament that the situation in Jammu and Kashmir is "much better" than that of last year even as it is maintaining a close vigil on all developments which have a bearing on India's security.
Providing statistics of violence reported from the state, which has been affected by stone pelting since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist leader Burhan Wani on July 8 last year, the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha that 583 cases (of violence) have been reported this year till date against a total of 2897 registered in 2016.
MHA informed that 12,650 miscreants (referring to the stone pelters) and separatists have been arrested or bound down (charged) under substantive and preventive laws since last year.
It added that separatists/trouble mongers have been kept under close surveillance to check their activities.
The J&K police, army, CRPF and NIA have taken strong action against the stone pelters and terrorists in the last one year. This year, 100 terrorists have already been killed in action with security forces in J&K.
The MHA added that while 2808 incidents of stone pelting were reported from J&K in 2016 in which 85 civilians were killed, 8932 were injured and two security personnel were killed and 8378 personnel were injured, 664 such incidents have been reported this year till July 9. In 664 incidents this year, 21 civilians have been killed, 107 civilians have been injured (till May 31), one security personnel has been killed while 1073 have been injured.
The MHA data shows that infiltration attempts from Line of Control (LoC) has gone up this year as compared to the last year around the same time. In January this year, there were 07 infiltration attempts at LoC as compared to 2 in January 2016, while 10 attempts have been made in June 2017 as compared to 7 last June. Total 42 infiltration attempts have been made by terrorists from Pakistan this year till June end, said MHA.
The government added that the Army has adopted a robust counter infiltration strategy along the LoC which is an appropriate mix of technology and human resources put together to check infiltration.