A year later: With Article 370 gone, security forces have stabilised situation

New Delhi, Aug 05: It has been a year since the Indian Parliament took a historic decision to abrogate Article 370, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

The abrogation was met with criticism and praise, but more importantly the security forces have largely managed to stabilise the situation. The protests, stone pelting and more importantly recruitments into terror groups are all down, a top official in the security establishment tells OneIndia.

The Hizbul Mujahideen which held the most sway among the youth suffered the most losses. It lost over 55 terrorists, which included its commander, Riyaz Naikoo. The death of Naikoo was without a doubt the biggest loss for the outfit in the past one year. The Hizbul Mujahideen has found it hard to find a replacement since then.

The number of youth joining terror groups dropped by 40 per cent. The year only witnessed 67 youth taking to terror.

The security forces also managed to eliminate a group known as the Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind. The members of this outfit had broken away from the Hizbul Mujahideen. The ideology of this outfit was catching on, but the elimination of its top leadership has ensured that the group became irrelevant.

A report prepared by the Union Ministry shows that the number of terror incidents have decreased by 36 per cent since the abrogation of the Article. Between January to July 15 2019, there were 188 incidents that had been reported and for the same period this year, the number stood at 120.

Between January to July 2019, the number of terrorists killed stood at 126, whereas this year for the same period it was 136. In terms of grenade attacks last year the number was at 51 in comparison to 21 this year.

Last year between January and July 75 security personnel were martyred when compared to the 35 this year. In terms of civilian deaths the number stood at 23 last year when compared to 22 this year between January and July 15.

In terms of IED attacks, there were six last year and just one between January and July 15 2020.

In terms of terrorist deaths, 110 have been killed. The Hizbul Mujahideen lost 50 of its men, while the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad lost 20 each. 14 terrorists of the Ansar and ISJK were also killed.

While the Hizbul Mujahideen lost Naikoo, the JeM lost its commander Qari Yasir. The Lashkar-e-Tayiba's top commander Haider was killed, while the Ansar lost Burhan Koka.

Following the abrogation of Article 370, the security forces have busted 22 hideouts while seizing 190 weapons. 22 terrorists and 300 of their associates have been arrested.