64% of youths joining terrorism in J&K killed within a year: Officials

Srinagar: The youths joining the terror ranks in Jammu and Kashmir have a “short shelf life” with more than 64 per cent of them being killed by security forces within a year, officials said on Sunday. Security forces, aided by a strong onground intelligence network, have scaled up anti-terror operations in the first five months of this year, though frequent violence in south Kashmir remained a cause for concern, they said.

Citing data of terrorists neutralised between January 1 and May 31 this year, the officials said 64.1 per cent of the new terror recruits were eliminated within a year. Only 26.6 per cent of the terror recruits lasted more than 12 months, while the fate of 9.3 per cent of them was not known, they said. Giving further details, the officials said 28.1 per cent of the terror recruits were killed within one month, 54.7 per cent within six months and 59.4 per cent within nine months. The officials said 70 to 75 youths have joined various terror groups in Kashmir Valley in the first five months of this year. The corresponding figure of last year was near equal.

They said south Kashmir continued to be the hotbed of terrorism in the valley as the region saw 59 terrorist killings by security forces in the first five months of this year compared to 31 such killings in central and north Kashmir. Out of the total 90 terrorists killed in the valley between January and May, 26 were Pakistani nationals and the number is much more than that of the whole of previous year when 182 terrorists, including 20 foreigners, were killed in 100 anti-terror operations, the officials said.

They said 45 terrorists were arrested during the period along with huge cache of arms and ammunition, with analysis and intelligence inputs suggesting a large supply of pistols aimed at target killings besides AK assault rifles, improvised explosive devices and sticky bombs.