STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: First two weeks of the holy month of Ramzan have witnessed steep rise in incidents of terror violence and incidents of stone pelting in comparison to previous year.
According to official sources, over 100 incidents of stone-pelting were recorded in Kashmir Valley since May 27, as against just 36 during the entire Ramzan last year. In addition not a single day has passed when terror violence has not been reported from different parts of the Kashmir Valley.
Army killed 14 terrorists in encounters along the Line of Control (LoC) and in the hinterland in the past four days while a jawan also lost his life. Pakistan Army made multiple attempts to push armed infiltrators across the LoC and these bids were foiled at Machhil and Naugam sectors in Kupwara district, Gurez in Bandipora district and Uri in Baramulla in the past one week alone.
Security forces are anticipating spiral of violence to hit north wards during the brief Assembly session beginning from June 17. Ahead of beginning of holy month of Ramzan, a Delhi based group of eminent personalities led by senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha had called for cessation of violence during Ramzan in Jammu and Kashmir.
Before issuing a signed statement in the media, the group had appealed, “We strongly urge all concerned who are wielding the gun or are pelting stones to desist from doing so during this holy month. We also like to appeal to the Government of India and the State government to take lead and declare that the security forces will respond only in cases of extreme provocation and in self-defence. Let there be no violence in Kashmir during Ramzan.”
Instead of paying attention to these passionate appeals the terrorists and stone pelters engaged the security forces in tough battles across different battle fronts.
The holy month of Ramzan began on a challenging note on May 27 when six heavily armed infiltrators were killed along the Line of Control in Rampur sector of Baramulla. The same day security forces in Tral area of Pulwama had gunned down Sabzar Ahmad Bhat, a close aide of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani.
Sabzar’s death triggered series of protest demonstrations across south Kashmir districts. The cycle of violence is still going on in parts of the Valley even as security forces have been trying to restore peace in the area.
The situation along the Line of Control remains equally volatile with regular exchange of intense shelling and desperate attempts to infiltrate heavily armed groups to carry out terror strikes. The Northern Command is on record having stated that explosives, inflammable material, arms and ammunition recovered from the infiltrators unfolds Pakistan’s design to orchestrate high-profile incidents targeting innocent civilian population and security forces during Ramzan.
During Ramzan in 2016 (between June 6 -July 6) over one dozen major incidents of terror related violence occurred in the hinterland and firefight with security forces along the Line of Control were reported in the State in which over two dozen terrorists were killed/neutralised and 10 security personnel sacrificed their lives. Over three dozen personnel were injured in fresh encounters with terrorists.
In 2015, a total number of 20 terrorists were killed during Ramzan between June and July while 4 security personnel lost their lives.
