New Delhi: Realising that supporting only militancy in Jammu and Kashmir was not adequate, Pakistan has shifted its strategy by promoting civil resistance in the Valley through radicalisation, something that has been highlighted in the home ministry’s recent annual report.
This aspect was clearly evidence last year when Pakistan changed its tactics by radicalising civilian resistance by effectively using the social media and some vested interest groups, the report highlighted. In fact, following the killing top Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in July last year, the Kashmir Valley witnessed unprecedented unrest with mobs resorting to stone-pelting on security forces.
“It is clear that Pak-based groups used every opportunity last year to instigate and trigger civil unrest in the Valley due to which there was a sharp increase in incidents of stone-pelting and local residents engaging with security forces,” a senior ministry official said.
It has also been revealed that there was a direct connection between increased infiltration from across the Valley to the militant activities in Kashmir which clearly means that with more militants managing to sneak in, terror activity in the region had stepped up.
Thus, this resulted in an increase in terrorist violence and casualties suffered by security forces last year though the number of civilians killed witnessed a decline.
However, a number of civilians sustained serious injuries due to use of pellet guns, which security forces had to resort to in the wake of the increasing incidents of stone-pelting.
According to the report, there was an increase of 54.81 per cent in terrorist incidents and 110.25 per cent in casualties of security forces in 2016 as compared to previous year. But, at the same time, there was a drop of 11.76 per cent in civilian fatalities last year.
