Militancy “claimed18,000 lives in J&K”
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Aug 29 — The decade long militancy in Jammu and Kashmir has taken a toll of over 18,000 human lives and the figure is still increasing.

Cold statistics may not reveal full face of human misery but figures available with the Ministry of Home Affairs show that if total killings by militants stood at 31 in 1988, it nearly touched 3,000 killings between 1994 and 1996. The number of those killed during the first half of the current year is over 600.

Recent killings in Doda district and an analysis of the incidents during the past one year, Ministry officials are of the opinion that in view of visible signs of growing normalcy, the militants backed by Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence have increasingly been resorting to attacks on soft targets.

Selective killings of people of a particular community, the Ministry’s report argues not only indicates the ‘desperation’ of a ‘sinster nature but also reflects the apprehension about the return of migrants to the Valley.

The Government admits there has been a sustained effort to increase infiltration into the Jammu region, particularly in the districts of Poonch and Rajouri to spread militant activities and show that whole State is affected.An analysis of charts shows that if in 1988 the total number of militant-related incidents of violence was 390 which includes explosions, attacks on security forces and other acts, the number shot up to nearly 7,000 incidents during 1994, over 6,800 in 1995 and 5,500 the next year.

Graph of killings also went up, in 1989, the record available with the Ministry shows 92 killings which shot up to 1177 in 1990. It includes killings of security personnel and also militants.Militant activities have also resulted in migration from the Valley.

The migrants are residing in Jammu and other places.As per information available, there are 29,074 migrant families registered in Jammu and 19,338 in Delhi, 2,347 families are registered in other parts of the country.