In pics: How terror in Kashmir has gone from bad to worse

Data released by the Narendra Modi government on February 5, 2019 revealed that Jammu and Kashmir has been witnessing regular terror attacks since the last five years. In this period, the state suffered a total of 1,708 terrorist incidents which amounts to an average of 28 terrorist incidents every month for five years, the government data revealed.

The Home Ministry has revealed that there has been a rise in deaths in all three categories (civilians, security personnel and terrorists). Between 2014 and 2018, there has been a 93 per rise in the number of security personnel killed in terrorist incidents in Jammu and Kashmir.

However, since 2016, the number of terrorist incidents has seen an upward trend. The number of terrorist incidents in Jammu & Kashmir rose by 54.8 per cent in 2016, 6 per cent (342 incidents) in 2017, and 79.53 per cent (614 incidents) in 2018. In fact, the year 2018 saw nearly 51 terrorist incidents every month.

Between 2014 and 2018, a total of 1,315 people were killed in the state due to terrorism. Of these, 138 (10.49 per cent) were civilians, 339 (25 per cent) security personnel, and 838 (63.72 per cent) were terrorists.

In another written reply in Rajya Sabha, the Union Home Ministry on February 13 said that between 2016 and 2018, 398 terrorists infiltrated into Jammu and Kashmir. On an average, this breaks down to 11 terrorists infiltrating into the state every month in the past three years.

According to the government data, the highest number of infiltrations into Jammu and Kashmir took place in June 2018 when 38 terrorists were estimated to have entered the state. This was followed by September 2016 and May 2017, the two months when 25 terrorists infiltrated into J&K.

In the same reply, the government also said that it was able to arrest 56 terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir. Between 2016 and 2018, the trend of terrorists' arrests declined by 27 per cent while the trend in terrorists killed in the Kashmir Valley saw a rise of 80 per cent in the same time frame.