After the surgical strikes, the India Pakistan relationship has been extremely strained and the security forces have borne the brunt for it, losing as many as 79 men in the line of duty. However, it has also achieved success in its missions and killed 175 militants, including top commanders in the Kashmir valley.
On September 29 last year, the Indian Army carried out surgical strikes on the terror launch pads across the Line of Control (LoC) in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK).
This came 10 days after four fidayeens (members of suicide squad) stormed the 12 infantry brigade headquarters at Uri killing 18 army soldiers and injuring 20 others. All the four Pakistani fidayeens were later killed in a fierce gunfight.
Of the 175 militants killed, 74 were Kashmiris and 101 Pakistanis. The slain includes over a dozen top commanders including Abu Musaib; nephew of Mumbai terror attack mastermind and Lashkar-e-Tioba leader, Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi; Lashkar-Toiba Kashmir chief Abu Dujana; Hizbul Mujhadeen commander Sabzar Ahmad Bhat; and Amarnath attack mastermind Abu Ismail among others.
Additionally, nearly 60 infiltration bids were foiled by the army on the Line of Control (LOC), in which 56 militants were killed.
“There are 85 militants operating in North Kashmir. Most of the terrorists are Pakistanis and the number of locals is very less,” said Nitish Kumar, Inspector General of Police, North Kashmir.
Meanwhile, among the 79 security personnel killed, 38 were army men, 30 were from Jammu and Kashmir Police. Seven CRPF men, three BSF soldiers and one Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) were also killed in the last one year across the valley.
Data released by MHA reveals that 150 militants were killed in 2016 compared to 108 in 2015. Around 82 security force men were killed in 2016 compared to 39 in 2015. There were 322 terrorist incidents in 2016 compared to 208 in 2015.
However, alarmingly, there have been 364 infiltration attempts in 2016 as compared to 121 in 2015.
