New Delhi: The security forces have killed more than 100 terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir and Line of Control so far, including 27 foreign militants.
The security forces that include army, CRPF and Jammu and Kashmir police killed 73 Kashmir valley-based terrorists since January this year. The forces also eliminated two militants in gunfight at Shopian district on Tuesday, taking numbers at 101. However, an Army JCO was also injured in the encounter.
In the anti-terror operations, top terror commanders such as Sameer Tiger (Hizbul Mujahideen), Pakistan's Mufti Waqas (Jaish-e-Mohammed) and Abu Hamas (Lashkar-e-Taiba) were also killed this year.
At a time when security forces are neutralizing them, it is also worrisome as a large number of local youths joining the militancy in the valley.
So far in 2018, a total of 82 youths have joined the ranks of militants. April has witnessed a highest number of locals recruitment to various militant groups, sources in the defence establishment said. As many as 25 youths joined militancy in April, 12 in May and 20 in June this year, the sources added.
In the beginning of this year, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti in a reply in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative House had said, "As many as 66 youths joined militancy in 2015, 88 in 2016 and 126 in 2017.
It is being believed that the rise in locals joining militancy began after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen's poster boy Burhan Wani in an encounter in south Kashmir on July 8, 2016.(UNI)