‘Decline in terror incidents in J&K’
NEW DELHI, Mar 17:
Nearly 3,800 Kashmiri migrants have returned to Jammu and Kashmir in the last few years and 520 of them after the abrogation of Article 370 to take up jobs under the Prime Minister’s special package, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.
Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy said the provision of special jobs for the Kashmiri migrant youths under the PM package is an important part for the rehabilitation of Kashmiri migrants, who left the Valley in 1990s due to militancy.
“A total of nearly 3,800 migrant candidates have returned to Kashmir in the last few years to take up the PM package jobs. Post abrogation of Article 370 (August 2019), as many as 520 migrant candidates have returned to Kashmir for taking up the jobs that have been provided to them under the rehabilitation package,” he said in a written reply.
Reddy said another nearly 2,000 migrant candidates are also likely to return to the Union Territory under the same policy in 2021 on successful completion of the selection process.
The Minister said as per a report of the Relief Office setup in 1990 by the then Government of Jammu and Kashmir, 44,167 Kashmiri migrant families are registered who had to move out from the Valley due to security concerns.
Out of these, the count of registered Hindu migrant families is 39,782, he said.
Reddy said there has been a significant decline in terror incidents in Jammu and Kashmir in the last three years but instances of shelling from across the border have gone up abruptly.
“During the past three years, there has been a significant decline in terror incidents and attempts of infiltration from across the border in Jammu and Kashmir. However, the incidents of shelling from across the border have increased during the past three years,” he said.
Reddy said the terror incidents in Jammu and Kashmir have come down from 614 in 2018 to 244 in 2020.
He said killings of civilians have come down from 39 in 2018 to 37 in 2020 and deaths of security personnel from 91 in 2018 to 62 in 2020.
However, the Minister said, instances of shelling from Pakistan increased from 2,140 in 2018 to 5,133 in 2020.
Reddy said some instances of supply of weapons through drones from Pakistan have come to light and security agencies were taking action on it.
He said this in Rajya Sabha, while responding to a question on whether the central government is aware that Pakistan has started supplying weapons to infiltrators via drones.
“Certain instances of supply of weapons via drones from across the Pakistan border have come to the notice of security and law enforcement agencies,” he said in his written reply.
Reddy said the Government has been taking various steps to meet such challenges, which include round the clock effective surveillance, streamlining the intelligence set up, capacity building of forces, patrolling on the borders along with sensitization of local population in border areas, establishment of observation posts, border fencing, flood lighting, deployment and use of modern and hi-tech surveillance equipments, etc. (PTI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
