At DGPs conference, no separate session on J&K a key signal

The DGP/IGPs conference was attended by both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah

New Delhi: The just concluded three day Director Generals of Police (DGP) Conference in Bhubaneswar saw a significant shift when it came to the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.

Security personnel stand guard during a search operation on Srinagar-Ladakh highway following a terrorist attack, in Ganderbal district, Jammu & Kashmir on October 21, 2024. (PTI)

For perhaps the first time since the 1990s, the issue of law and order in the UT was not discussed separately, but as part of the larger border management strategy of the NDA government, according to people with first-hand information of the matter.

The DGP/IGPs conference was attended by both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.

To be sure, there were informal chats, over meals, on J&K, but the very fact that no separate session was devoted to it underlines the improvement the UT has seen since 2019, when Article 370 was abrogated.

The J and K police on its part is working towards deglamorising terrorists by treating terror strikes under the ambit of law and order and convicting the terrorists through court of law. The UT police and intelligence has already set up a State Investigation Agency (SIA) and district level State Investigation Units (SIUs) to ensure cross-agency counter-terror operations are conducted against those accused under the UAPA.

Data collated by the UT police and intelligence of terrorist violence pre-abrogation of Article 370 (April 2, 2014-July 31, 2019) and post-abrogation (August 2019-December 2, 2024), and shared with HT, shows a huge dip in terror incidents and accompanied violence. There were 1458 terror incidents in the pre-abrogation era, while the number has dipped to 896 in the post abrogation period. The total number of local terrorists killed in the pre-era were 420 as compared to 517 in the post era.

The past five years have also seen fewer terrorists from across the border being able to enter India, primarily on account of a tighter control over the border and the line of control. The number of foreign terrorists killed in the past five years was 156 compared to 469 in the previous five years.

The number of security forces killed in terror strikes has gone down from 399 in pre-era to 136 in the post era. The number of civilians killed has also gone down from 256 to 150 in the defined period and so have the attacks on civilians from 235 to 165 before and after August 5, 2019.

Similarly, grenade attacks have decreased from 284 to 187 in the defined period and IED blasts have declined from 35 to 31 with stand-off firing attacks coming down 33 per cent from 358 to 240 till November 30, 2024. The total number of civilians killed and injured during law and order operations has gone down from 133 to zero and from 9599 to 117 in the relevant period.

Working towards the policy of zero terror, 1517 terror suspects/associates were arrested in the five years post-abrogation, while the number stood at 454 in the pre-era. There has been only one strike (or Bandh) in the past five years, although the fact that the state was under the rule of the LG in this period is certain to have played a part in this. And organized stone pelting incidents have decreased from 6563 in the pre-era to 776 during the past 1945 days in the post era.

“Just like you have armed gangs in hinterland states of India, we will treat the terrorists in J&K in the same way. No special status, no martyrdom….just as plain criminals,” said a top J&K police official who asked not to be named.