Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbagh Singh on Thursday said that 40 foreign militants were killed in the Valley resulting in a dropping in local recruitment significantly.
“This year, our special focus was to eliminate foreign militants of various outfits operating in the Valley. They were instrumental in provoking and luring our youth into militancy,” the DGP told reporters on the sidelines of Kashmir Marathon-2022 organised by the JK police in Srinagar.
He said that this year 40 foreign militants were killed in various operations while a few are still at large. “Those active are on the radar of armed forces. They will also be killed soon,” he said. “Today, all outfits are facing a leadership crisis as their infrastructure stands dismantled to a great extent.”
He said that with the killing of foreign militants, local militant recruitment has dropped significantly. To query about a dip in stone pelting and street protests, Singh said that the credit goes to the people and the youth who choose to stay away from violence.
“The youth preferred to shape their careers in various fields. Stone pelting has come to an end in the past three years and local militant recruitment too has dropped to almost zero,” the JK police chief said.
About IED attacks in JK, the DGP said that readymade IEDs are low-cost for militants and in fact a new strategy aimed at inflicting maximum damage to forces and less to militants. “This is a new strategy by militants. Such consignments were seized in Jammu that were airdropped through drones. Unfortunately, some IED explosions were reported in Udhampur in which a few people lost their lives,” he said.
On infiltration, the DGP said that compared to previous years, this year’s infiltration has shown a fall while a few successful attempts were reported.
To a query about target killings, the DGP said that such acts are being carried out to disrupt the peaceful atmosphere prevailing in the Valley and to damage the age-old fabric of communal harmony. “A major aim of such acts is to provoke people across India to target Kashmiris working in many Indian states. I am grateful to Indian citizens for behaving maturely and not falling into the trap laid by the agencies supporting militancy,” he said.
The DGP said that police are organizing the marathon 2022 in which people of all ages participated including physically abled children and the elderly. “More events are on cards especially the football event under the civic action program of the police,” he said. (KNO)
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